capavschaWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#37,218
“capa” frequency rank
#12,331
“cha” frequency rank
49549
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature capa cha
Definition Condensateur. Vingt-sixième lettre de l’alphabet cyrillique, ш.

Where the eye mixes capa and cha

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
capa
3 ch
cha

Why the eye confuses capa with cha

A purely visual mix-up. capa (\ka.pa\) and cha (\ʃa\) 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 49549, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

capa is recorded at frequency rank #37,218, classified as anoun, pronounced \ka.pa\. cha is at rank #12,331, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʃa\.

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 49549, this pair ranks #169,723 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of capa vs cha

Shared letters: ac. Private to "capa": p. Private to "cha": h.

"capa" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "cha" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • capaacpa · caap · cappa · ccapa · cpaa

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "capa" and "cha" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ka.pa\ versus \ʃa\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "capa" or "cha"?
"cha" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,331 in our French list, against #37,218 for "capa". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "capa" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cha" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #169,723 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "capa" and "cha" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "capa vs coupa". 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 #169,723 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