causavscauséeConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#20,078
“causa” frequency rank
#12,330
“causée” frequency rank
32408
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature causa causée
Definition Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de causer. Participe passé féminin singulier du verbe causer.

Where the eye mixes causa and causée

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

5 ch
causa
6 ch
causée

Visual trap between causa and causée

A purely visual mix-up. causa (\ko.za\) and causée (\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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32408, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

causa is recorded at frequency rank #20,078, classified as averb, pronounced \ko.za\. causée is at rank #12,330, 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 32408, this pair ranks #297,493 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of causa vs causée

Shared letters: acsu. Private to "causa": -. Private to "causée": .

"causa" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "causée" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • causaacusa · casua · cauas · caussa · ccausa · cuasa

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "causa" for "causée" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ko.za\ versus \ko.ze\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "causa" or "causée"?
"causée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,330 in our French list, against #20,078 for "causa". 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 "causa" and "causée" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "causa" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "causée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #297,493 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "causa" and "causée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "causa vs coupa". 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 #297,493 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