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 eye mixes cafés and cas
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. cafés runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against cas's 3 (CVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses cafés with cas
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": fé. Private to "cas": -.
"cafés" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "cas" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "cafés" and "cas" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "cafés" vs "cas" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "cafés" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #416,081 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cafés" and "cas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cafés vs cakes". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #416,081 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.