causavsCSAConfusable pair

Quick tell: causa is a verb, CSA is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“causa” is a verb and “CSA” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#20,078
“causa” frequency rank
#12,945
“CSA” frequency rank
33023
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature causa CSA
Definition Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de causer. Autorité administrative indépendante qui régule le secteur de la communication audiovisuelle en France.

Where the eye mixes causa and CSA

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
causa
3 ch
CSA

Visual trap between causa and CSA

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: causa is \ko.za\ while CSA is \se.ɛs.a\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33023, 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\. CSA is at rank #12,945, tagged as aname, pronounced \se.ɛs.a\.

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 33023, this pair ranks #293,373 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of causa vs CSA

Shared letters: acs. Private to "causa": u. Private to "CSA": -.

"causa" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "CSA" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Known mistypes of this pair

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "causa" and "CSA" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "causa" is a verb and "CSA" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "causa" or "CSA" show up more?
"CSA" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,945 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.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "causa" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "CSA" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #293,373 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "causa" and "CSA" 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 #293,373 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