cassaitvscessaitWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#42,219
“cassait” frequency rank
#32,731
“cessait” frequency rank
74950
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cassait cessait
Definition Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif imparfait du verbe casser. Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif imparfait du verbe cesser.

Where the eye mixes cassait and cessait

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. cassait and cessait follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
cassait
7 ch
cessait

Visual trap between cassait and cessait

A purely visual mix-up. cassait (\ka.sɛ\) and cessait (\sɛ.sɛ\) 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 a single letter - a in “cassait” becomes e in “cessait”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 74950, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cassait is recorded at frequency rank #42,219, classified as averb, pronounced \ka.sɛ\. cessait is at rank #32,731, tagged as averb, pronounced \sɛ.sɛ\.

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 74950, this pair ranks #35,539 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cassait vs cessait

Shared letters: acist. Private to "cassait": -. Private to "cessait": e.

"cassait" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC  ·  "cessait" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cassaitacssait · casait · casasit · cassaitt · cassati · cassiat · ccassait · csasait
  • cessaitccessait · cesait · cesasit · cessaitt · cessati · cessiat · csesait · ecssait

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cassait" and "cessait" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ka.sɛ\ versus \sɛ.sɛ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "cassait" or "cessait" show up more?
"cessait" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,731 in our French list, against #42,219 for "cassait". 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 "cassait" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cessait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #35,539 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cassait" and "cessait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cassait vs chassait". 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 #35,539 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