cariesvscarnetsConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#38,190
“caries” frequency rank
#13,988
“carnets” frequency rank
52178
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature caries carnets
Definition Pluriel de carie. Pluriel de carnet.

Where the eye mixes caries and carnets

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
caries
7 ch
carnets

Visual trap between caries and carnets

A purely visual mix-up. caries (\ka.ʁi\) and carnets (\kaʁ.nɛ\) 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 52178, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

caries is recorded at frequency rank #38,190, classified as anoun, pronounced \ka.ʁi\. carnets is at rank #13,988, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kaʁ.nɛ\.

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 52178, this pair ranks #149,549 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of caries vs carnets

Shared letters: acers. Private to "caries": i. Private to "carnets": nt.

"caries" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "carnets" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cariesacries · caires · careis · cariess · carise · carries · ccaries · craies
  • carnetsacrnets · canrets · carents · carnest · carnetss · carnetts · carnnets · carntes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "caries" for "carnets" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ka.ʁi\ versus \kaʁ.nɛ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "caries" or "carnets"?
"carnets" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,988 in our French list, against #38,190 for "caries". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "caries" and "carnets" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "caries" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "carnets" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #149,549 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "caries" and "carnets" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "caries vs carrez". 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 #149,549 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