casvsCNETell them apart

Which to use

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

#157
“cas” frequency rank
#47,795
“CNE” frequency rank
47952
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cas CNE
Definition Accident, aventure, conjoncture, occasion ; fait arrivé, ou qui peut arriver. Contrat nouvelle embauche, type de contrat de travail en France.

Where the eye mixes cas and CNE

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
cas
3 ch
CNE

Visual trap between cas and CNE

A purely visual mix-up. cas (\kɑ\) and CNE (\se.ɛn.ø\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47952, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cas is recorded at frequency rank #157, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɑ\. CNE is at rank #47,795, tagged as anoun, pronounced \se.ɛn.ø\.

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 47952, this pair ranks #182,846 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cas vs CNE

Shared letters: c. Private to "cas": as. Private to "CNE": en.

"cas" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "CNE" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cas" for "CNE" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\kɑ\ versus \se.ɛn.ø\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "cas" or "CNE"?
"cas" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #157 in our French list, against #47,795 for "CNE". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "cas" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "CNE" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #182,846 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cas" and "CNE" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "CNE vs conde". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #182,846 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