Which to use
“cai” and “chais” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #46,045
- “cai” frequency rank
- #36,299
- “chais” frequency rank
- 82344
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cai | chais |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Bien, affaire, objet, chose, fortune. | Pluriel de chai (pièce). |
Where the eye mixes cai and chais
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. cai runs 3 letters (CVV) against chais's 5 (CCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between cai and chais
A purely visual mix-up. cai (\kaj\) and chais (\ʃɛ\) 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 82344, 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\. chais is at rank #36,299, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʃɛ\.
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 82344, this pair ranks #16,928 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of cai vs chais
Shared letters: aci. Private to "cai": -. Private to "chais": hs.
"cai" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "chais" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- chais ← cahis · cchais · chaiss · chasi · chhais · chias · hcais
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "cai" and "chais" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "cai" or "chais"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "cai" and "chais" 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 "chais" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #16,928 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cai" and "chais" 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 #16,928 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.