Which to use
“cara” is a verb and “cosa” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #21,560
- “cara” frequency rank
- #46,679
- “cosa” frequency rank
- 68239
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cara | cosa |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de carer. | Variante du IXᵉ siècle de chose. |
Where the eye mixes cara and cosa
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. cara and cosa follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between cara and cosa
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cara is \ka.ʁa\ while cosa is \ˈkɔza ~ˈkɔzə\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68239, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cara is recorded at frequency rank #21,560, classified as averb, pronounced \ka.ʁa\. cosa is at rank #46,679, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈkɔza ~ˈkɔzə\.
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 68239, this pair ranks #59,966 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of cara vs cosa
Shared letters: ac. Private to "cara": r. Private to "cosa": os.
"cara" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "cosa" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "cara" and "cosa" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "cara" or "cosa"?
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 "cara" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cosa" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #59,966 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cara" and "cosa" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cosa 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 #59,966 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.