casservschasséeWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: casser is a verb, chassée is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“casser” is a verb and “chassée” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,388
“casser” frequency rank
#34,929
“chassée” frequency rank
38317
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature casser chassée
Definition Briser ; rompre. Féminin singulier de chassé.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set casser and chassée apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
casser
7 ch
chassée

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: casser is \ka.se\ while chassée is \ʃa.se\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38317, 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\. chassée is at rank #34,929, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ʃa.se\.

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 38317, this pair ranks #256,115 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of casser vs chassée

Shared letters: aces. Private to "casser": r. Private to "chassée": .

"casser" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "chassée" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • casseracsser · casesr · casserr · cassre · ccasser · csaser

Frequency comparison

casser#3,388
chassée#34,929

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "casser" and "chassée" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "casser" is a verb and "chassée" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "casser" or "chassée"?
"casser" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,388 in our French list, against #34,929 for "chassée". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering casser vs chassée

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “casser”; for an adjective, it's “chassée”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “casser” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list