causéevscausseWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: causée is a verb, causse is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“causée” is a verb and “causse” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#12,330
“causée” frequency rank
#41,174
“causse” frequency rank
53504
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature causée causse
Definition Participe passé féminin singulier du verbe causer. Nom donné dans le Massif Central à de hauts plateaux calcaires nus et arides.

Where the eye mixes causée and causse

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

6 ch
causée
6 ch
causse

Visual trap between causée and causse

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: causée is \ko.ze\ while causse is \kos\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - é in “causée” becomes s in “causse”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53504, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

causée is recorded at frequency rank #12,330, classified as averb, pronounced \ko.ze\. causse is at rank #41,174, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kos\.

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 53504, this pair ranks #140,258 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of causée vs causse

Shared letters: acesu. Private to "causée": é. Private to "causse": -.

"causée" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVV  ·  "causse" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • causseacusse · casuse · ccausse · cuasse

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "causée" for "causse" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "causée" is a verb and "causse" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "causée" or "causse"?
"causée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,330 in our French list, against #41,174 for "causse". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "causée" and "causse" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "causée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "causse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #140,258 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "causée" and "causse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "causse vs causses". 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 #140,258 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