caevscradeWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: cae is a verb, crade is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“cae” is a verb and “crade” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#43,819
“cae” frequency rank
#36,340
“crade” frequency rank
80159
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cae crade
Definition Troisième personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif du verbe irrégulier caer. Sale.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set cae and crade apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

3 ch
cae
5 ch
crade

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cae is \ˈka.e\ while crade is \kʁad\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 80159, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cae is recorded at frequency rank #43,819, classified as averb, pronounced \ˈka.e\. crade is at rank #36,340, tagged as anadj, pronounced \kʁad\.

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 80159, this pair ranks #21,610 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cae vs crade

Shared letters: ace. Private to "cae": -. Private to "crade": dr.

"cae" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "crade" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cradeccrade · cradde · craed · crdae · crrade · rcade

Frequency comparison

cae#43,819
crade#36,340

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cae" and "crade" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cae" is a verb and "crade" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "cae" or "crade"?
"crade" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #36,340 in our French list, against #43,819 for "cae". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering cae vs crade

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “cae”; for an adjective, it's “crade”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “cae” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list