chasesvschoosesWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#21,745
“chases” frequency rank
#9,148
“chooses” frequency rank
30893
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chases chooses
Definition plural of chase third-person singular simple present indicative of choose

Where the eye mixes chases and chooses

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. chases runs 6 letters (CCVCVC) against chooses's 7 (CCVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
chases
7 ch
chooses

Visual trap between chases and chooses

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: chases is /ˈt͡ʃeɪsɪz/ while chooses is /ˈt͡ʃuːzɪz/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30893, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chases is recorded at frequency rank #21,745, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈt͡ʃeɪsɪz/. chooses is at rank #9,148, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈt͡ʃuːzɪz/.

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 30893, this pair ranks #350,727 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of chases vs chooses

Shared letters: cehs. Private to "chases": a. Private to "chooses": o.

"chases" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "chooses" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chases ← cahses · cchases · chaess · chasess · chasses · chhases · chsaes · hcases
  • chooses ← cchooses · chhooses · chooess · choosess · choosses · choses · chosoes · cohoses

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "chases" for "chooses" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "chases" is a noun and "chooses" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "chases" vs "chooses" - which ranks higher?
"chooses" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,148 in our English list, against #21,745 for "chases". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "chases" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "chooses" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #350,727 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chases" and "chooses" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cates vs chases". 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 #350,727 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list