caservscauseTell them apart

Quick tell: caser is a verb, cause is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“caser” is a verb and “cause” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#22,196
“caser” frequency rank
#332
“cause” frequency rank
22528
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature caser cause
Definition Mettre dans une case. Ce qui fait qu’une chose est ou s’opère.

Where the eye mixes caser and cause

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
caser
5 ch
cause

Look-alike desk: caser vs cause

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: caser is \kɑ.ze\ while cause is \koz\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 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 22528, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

caser is recorded at frequency rank #22,196, classified as averb, pronounced \kɑ.ze\. cause is at rank #332, tagged as anoun, pronounced \koz\.

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 22528, this pair ranks #357,512 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of caser vs cause

Shared letters: aces. Private to "caser": r. Private to "cause": u.

"caser" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "cause" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • caseracser · caesr · caserr · casre · ccaser · csaer
  • causeacuse · casue · caues · ccause · cuase

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "caser" for "cause" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "caser" is a verb and "cause" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "caser" or "cause" show up more?
"cause" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #332 in our French list, against #22,196 for "caser". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "caser" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cause" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #357,512 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "caser" and "cause" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "caser vs casseur". 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 #357,512 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