kavsKaiWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: ka is a noun, Kai is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ka” is a noun and “Kai” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#14,298
“ka” frequency rank
#17,464
“Kai” frequency rank
31762
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ka Kai
Definition Autre appellation du kaon. Prénom masculin.

Letter map: ka vs Kai

Shared letters muted; letters that set ka and Kai apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

2 ch
ka
3 ch
Kai

Part-of-speech tell for ka / Kai

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ka is anoun and Kaianame. On the page they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “ka” sits inside “Kai”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31762, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ka is recorded at frequency rank #14,298, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɑ\. Kai is at rank #17,464, tagged as aname.

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 31762, this pair ranks #301,716 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ka vs Kai

Shared letters: ak. Private to "ka": -. Private to "Kai": i.

"ka" · 2 letters · shape CV  ·  "Kai" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ka" for "Kai" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ka" is a noun and "Kai" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "ka" vs "Kai" - which ranks higher?
"ka" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,298 in our French list, against #17,464 for "Kai". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "ka" vs "Kai" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ka" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Kai" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #301,716 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ka" and "Kai" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Kai vs ky". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #301,716 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