caivscaireWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#46,045
“cai” frequency rank
#7,938
“caire” frequency rank
53983
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cai caire
Definition Bien, affaire, objet, chose, fortune. Étoupe de fibres de coco.

Where the spellings diverge

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

3 ch
cai
5 ch
caire

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. cai (\kaj\) and caire (\kɛʁ\) 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 extra letter(s) - “cai” sits inside “caire”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53983, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cai is recorded at frequency rank #46,045, classified as anoun, pronounced \kaj\. caire is at rank #7,938, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɛʁ\.

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 53983, this pair ranks #137,101 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cai vs caire

Shared letters: aci. Private to "cai": -. Private to "caire": er.

"cai" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "caire" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cairecairre · ccaire · ciare

Frequency comparison

cai#46,045
caire#7,938

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cai" and "caire" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\kaj\ versus \kɛʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "cai" or "caire"?
"caire" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,938 in our French list, against #46,045 for "cai". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering cai vs caire

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 “cai” 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