caivsCDDWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#46,045
“cai” frequency rank
#11,538
“CDD” frequency rank
57583
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cai CDD
Definition Bien, affaire, objet, chose, fortune. Contrat à durée déterminée, type de contrat de travail en France.

Where the eye mixes cai and CDD

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
cai
3 ch
CDD

Look-alike desk: cai vs CDD

A purely visual mix-up. cai (\kaj\) and CDD (\se.de.de\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57583, 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\. CDD is at rank #11,538, tagged as anoun, pronounced \se.de.de\.

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 57583, this pair ranks #114,162 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cai vs CDD

Shared letters: c. Private to "cai": ai. Private to "CDD": d.

"cai" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "CDD" · 3 letters · shape CCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cai" for "CDD" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\kaj\ versus \se.de.de\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "cai" or "CDD" show up more?
"CDD" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,538 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.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cai" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "CDD" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #114,162 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cai" and "CDD" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cai vs CCE". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #114,162 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list