Which to use
“cai” and “cats” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #46,045
- “cai” frequency rank
- #28,094
- “cats” frequency rank
- 74139
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cai | cats |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Bien, affaire, objet, chose, fortune. | Pluriel de cat. |
Where the eye mixes cai and cats
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. cai runs 3 letters (CVV) against cats's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses cai with cats
A purely visual mix-up. cai (\kaj\) and cats (\kat\) 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 74139, 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\. cats is at rank #28,094, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kat\.
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 74139, this pair ranks #38,142 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of cai vs cats
Shared letters: ac. Private to "cai": i. Private to "cats": st.
"cai" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "cats" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- cats ← acts · catss · catts · ccats · ctas
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "cai" for "cats" ever safe?
Frequency check: "cai" vs "cats" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "cai" and "cats" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "cai" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cats" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #38,142 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cai" and "cats" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cai vs CCE". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #38,142 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.