cachentvscassentWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“cachent” and “cassent” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#9,127
“cachent” frequency rank
#16,823
“cassent” frequency rank
25950
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cachent cassent
Definition Troisième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent du verbe cacher. Troisième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent du verbe casser.

Where the eye mixes cachent and cassent

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
cachent
7 ch
cassent

Why the eye confuses cachent with cassent

A purely visual mix-up. cachent (\kaʃ\) and cassent (\kas\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25950, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cachent is recorded at frequency rank #9,127, classified as averb, pronounced \kaʃ\. cassent is at rank #16,823, tagged as averb, pronounced \kas\.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 25950, this pair ranks #337,942 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of cachent vs cassent

Shared letters: acent. Private to "cachent": h. Private to "cassent": s.

"cachent" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "cassent" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cachentacchent · cacchent · cacehnt · cachennt · cachentt · cachetn · cachhent · cachnet
  • cassentacssent · casent · casesnt · cassennt · cassentt · cassetn · cassnet · ccassent

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cachent" for "cassent" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\kaʃ\ versus \kas\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "cachent" or "cassent" show up more?
"cachent" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,127 in our French list, against #16,823 for "cassent". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cachent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cassent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #337,942 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cachent" and "cassent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cassent vs casseur". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #337,942 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list