cafés vs ces, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“cafés” is a noun and “ces” is a determiner - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#9,443
“cafés” frequency rank: #74
“ces” frequency rank: 9517
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	cafés	ces
Definition	Pluriel de café.	Pluriel de ce et cette.

Where the spellings diverge

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

5 ch

cafés

3 ch

ces

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cafés is \ka.fe\ while ces is \se\. 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 (noun vs determiner), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9517, 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\. ces is at rank #74, tagged as adet, pronounced \se\.

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 9517, this pair ranks #416,351 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of cafés vs ces

Shared letters: cs. Private to "cafés": afé. Private to "ces": e.

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

Frequency comparison

cafés#9,443

ces#74

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cafés" and "ces" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cafés" is a noun and "ces" a determiner, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "cafés" or "ces"?

"ces" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #74 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 ces

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “cafés”; for a determiner, it's “ces”.
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