cafévscasaWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“café” and “casa” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#931
“café” frequency rank
#91
“casa” frequency rank
1022
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature café casa
Definition fruto gerado pelo cafeeiro construção que serve de moradia

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set café and casa apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch
café
4 ch
casa

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. café (/kɐ.ˈfɛ/) and casa (/ˈka.zɐ/) 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 1022, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

café is recorded at frequency rank #931, classified as anoun, pronounced /kɐ.ˈfɛ/. casa is at rank #91, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈka.zɐ/.

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 1022, this pair ranks #74,612 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of café vs casa

Shared letters: ac. Private to "café": . Private to "casa": s.

"café" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "casa" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • casaacsa · caas · cassa · ccasa · csaa

Frequency comparison

café#931
casa#91

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "café" and "casa" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/kɐ.ˈfɛ/ versus /ˈka.zɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "café" or "casa"?
"casa" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #91 in our Portuguese list, against #931 for "café". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering café vs casa

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “café” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list