caivsclanWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#46,045
“cai” frequency rank
#4,412
“clan” frequency rank
50457
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cai clan
Definition Bien, affaire, objet, chose, fortune. Chez les Celtes, tribu formée d’un certain nombre de familles.

Where the spellings diverge

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

3 ch
cai
4 ch
clan

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. cai (\kaj\) and clan (\klɑ̃\) 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 50457, 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\. clan is at rank #4,412, tagged as anoun, pronounced \klɑ̃\.

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 50457, this pair ranks #162,457 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cai vs clan

Shared letters: ac. Private to "cai": i. Private to "clan": ln.

"cai" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "clan" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • clancaln · cclan · clann · cllan · clna · lcan

Frequency comparison

cai#46,045
clan#4,412

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cai" and "clan" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\kaj\ versus \klɑ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "cai" or "clan"?
"clan" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,412 in our French list, against #46,045 for "cai". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering cai vs clan

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