cafésvscageWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#9,443
“cafés” frequency rank
#5,639
“cage” frequency rank
15082
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cafés cage
Definition Pluriel de café. Petite loge portative faite de fils de fer ou de menus bâtons d’osier et dans laquelle on enferme ordinairement des petits animaux.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set cafés and cage apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
cafés
4 ch
cage

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. cafés (\ka.fe\) and cage (\kaʒ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15082, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cafés is recorded at frequency rank #9,443, classified as anoun, pronounced \ka.fe\. cage is at rank #5,639, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kaʒ\.

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 15082, this pair ranks #393,943 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of cafés vs cage

Shared letters: ac. Private to "cafés": fsé. Private to "cage": eg.

"cafés" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "cage" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cageacge · caeg · cagge · ccage · cgae

Frequency comparison

cafés#9,443
cage#5,639

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cafés" and "cage" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ka.fe\ versus \kaʒ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "cafés" or "cage"?
"cage" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,639 in our French list, against #9,443 for "cafés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering cafés vs cage

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “cafés” 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