cairvscatsWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#1,522
“cair” frequency rank
#31,281
“cats” frequency rank
32803
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cair cats
Definition dar queda plural de cat

Letter map: cair vs cats

Shared letters muted; letters that set cair and cats apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. cair (CVVC) and cats (CVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
cair
4 ch
cats

Part-of-speech tell for cair / cats

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: cair is averb and catsanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32803, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cair is recorded at frequency rank #1,522, classified as averb. cats is at rank #31,281, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kæts/.

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 32803, this pair ranks #34,886 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cair vs cats

Shared letters: ac. Private to "cair": ir. Private to "cats": st.

"cair" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "cats" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cair ← acir · cairr · cari · ccair · ciar
  • cats ← acts · catss · catts · ccats · ctas

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cair" for "cats" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cair" is a verb and "cats" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "cair" vs "cats" - which ranks higher?
"cair" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,522 in our Portuguese list, against #31,281 for "cats". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pair "cair" vs "cats" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cair" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cats" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #34,886 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cair" and "cats" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cactus vs cats". 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 #34,886 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list