casservscauserWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#3,388
“casser” frequency rank
#6,377
“causer” frequency rank
9765
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature casser causer
Definition Briser ; rompre. Être cause de ; occasionner, provoquer.

Where the eye mixes casser and causer

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

6 ch
casser
6 ch
causer

Visual trap between casser and causer

A purely visual mix-up. casser (\ka.se\) and causer (\ko.ze\) 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 - s in “casser” becomes u in “causer”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9765, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

casser is recorded at frequency rank #3,388, classified as averb, pronounced \ka.se\. causer is at rank #6,377, tagged as averb, pronounced \ko.ze\.

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 9765, this pair ranks #415,487 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of casser vs causer

Shared letters: acers. Private to "casser": -. Private to "causer": u.

"casser" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "causer" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • casseracsser · casesr · casserr · cassre · ccasser · csaser
  • causeracuser · casuer · cauesr · causerr · causre · causser · ccauser · cuaser

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "casser" and "causer" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ka.se\ versus \ko.ze\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "casser" vs "causer" - which ranks higher?
"casser" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,388 in our French list, against #6,377 for "causer". 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 "casser" and "causer" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "casser" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "causer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #415,487 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "casser" and "causer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "causer vs cruiser". 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 #415,487 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