cauxvschumTell them apart

Which to use

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

#38,692
“caux” frequency rank
#18,959
“chum” frequency rank
57651
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature caux chum
Definition Mélange de choux, de navets et de pommes que l’on donne aux vaches et aux cochons. Ami (sans idée d’amour).

Where the eye mixes caux and chum

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. caux (CVVC) and chum (CCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
caux
4 ch
chum

Visual trap between caux and chum

A purely visual mix-up. caux (\ko\) and chum (\tʃɔm\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57651, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

caux is recorded at frequency rank #38,692, classified as anoun, pronounced \ko\. chum is at rank #18,959, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tʃɔm\.

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 57651, this pair ranks #113,751 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of caux vs chum

Shared letters: cu. Private to "caux": ax. Private to "chum": hm.

"caux" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "chum" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • caux ← acux · cauxx · caxu · ccaux · cuax
  • chum ← cchum · chhum · chmu · chumm · cuhm · hcum

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "caux" and "chum" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ko\ versus \tʃɔm\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "caux" or "chum" show up more?
"chum" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,959 in our French list, against #38,692 for "caux". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "caux" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "chum" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #113,751 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "caux" and "chum" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "casus vs caux". 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 #113,751 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