cafésvscasWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#9,443
“cafés” frequency rank
#157
“cas” frequency rank
9600
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cafés cas
Definition Pluriel de café. Accident, aventure, conjoncture, occasion ; fait arrivé, ou qui peut arriver.

Where the spellings diverge

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

5 ch
cafés
3 ch
cas

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. cafés (\ka.fe\) and cas (\kɑ\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9600, 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\. cas is at rank #157, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɑ\.

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 9600, this pair ranks #416,081 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of cafés vs cas

Shared letters: acs. Private to "cafés": . Private to "cas": -.

"cafés" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "cas" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequency comparison

cafés#9,443
cas#157

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cafés" and "cas" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ka.fe\ versus \kɑ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "cafés" or "cas"?
"cas" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #157 in our French list, against #9,443 for "cafés". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering cafés vs cas

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