cafévsCEEWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: café is a noun, CEE is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“café” is a noun and “CEE” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,432
“café” frequency rank
#21,565
“CEE” frequency rank
22997
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature café CEE
Definition Graines de caféier, ou poudre formée de ces grains torréfiés et moulus. La Communauté économique européenne, l’ancienne union économique fondée par le Traité de Rome en 1957 avec initialement 6 pays européens, étendue au fil des années jusqu’à 15 pays, et l’une des Communautés européennes qui ont précédé l’actuelle l’Union européenne formée par le Traité de fusion en 1992, qui les a intégrées dans la Communauté européenne (un des trois « piliers de l’Union »).

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set café and CEE apart are highlighted. They share 1 letter in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch
café
3 ch
CEE

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: café is \ka.fe\ while CEE is \se.ø.ø\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22997, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

café is recorded at frequency rank #1,432, classified as anoun, pronounced \ka.fe\. CEE is at rank #21,565, tagged as aname, pronounced \se.ø.ø\.

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 22997, this pair ranks #354,943 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of café vs CEE

Shared letters: c. Private to "café": afé. Private to "CEE": e.

"café" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "CEE" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequency comparison

café#1,432
CEE#21,565

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "café" and "CEE" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "café" is a noun and "CEE" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "café" or "CEE"?
"café" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,432 in our French list, against #21,565 for "CEE". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering café vs CEE

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “café”; for a name, it's “CEE”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “café” 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