Which to use
“caille” and “cailles” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #23,126
- “caille” frequency rank
- #41,169
- “cailles” frequency rank
- 64295
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | caille | cailles |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Nom vernaculaire normalisé donné à trois genres de petits gallinacés migrateurs de l’Ancien Monde comprenant un total de neuf espèces à plumage grivelé, exhibant souvent un patron très voyant de traits faciaux foncés et pâles en alternance, souvent chassées comme gibier, et dont la chair est réputée pour son fumet délicat. | Pluriel de caille. |
Same sound, different letters: caille vs cailles
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. caille runs 6 letters (CVVCCV) against cailles's 7 (CVVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Same sound, different spelling - caille / cailles
This is the hard kind. caille and cailles are pronounced identically (\kɑj\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “caille” sits inside “cailles”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64295, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
caille is recorded at frequency rank #23,126, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɑj\. cailles is at rank #41,169, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɑj\.
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 64295, this pair ranks #77,753 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of caille vs cailles
Shared letters: aceil. Private to "caille": -. Private to "cailles": s.
"caille" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "cailles" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "caille" and "cailles" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "caille" or "cailles" show up more?
After this comparison
You've separated the homophone pair "caille" / "cailles". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "caille" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cailles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #77,753 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "caille" and "cailles" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cailles vs callas". 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 #77,753 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.