choosevschoosesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#1,296
“choose” frequency rank
#9,148
“chooses” frequency rank
10444
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature choose chooses
Definition To pick; to make the choice of; to select. third-person singular simple present indicative of choose

Where the eye mixes choose and chooses

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

6 ch
choose
7 ch
chooses

Visual trap between choose and chooses

A purely visual mix-up. choose (/t͡ʃuːz/) and chooses (/ˈt͡ʃuːzɪz/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “choose” sits inside “chooses”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10444, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

choose is recorded at frequency rank #1,296, classified as averb, pronounced /t͡ʃuːz/. 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 10444, this pair ranks #492,290 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of choose vs chooses

Shared letters: cehos. Private to "choose": -. Private to "chooses": -.

"choose" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV  ·  "chooses" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • choose ← cchoose · chhoose · chooes · choosse · chosoe · cohose · hcoose
  • chooses ← cchooses · chhooses · chooess · choosess · choosses · choses · chosoes · cohoses

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "choose" and "chooses" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/t͡ʃuːz/ versus /ˈt͡ʃuːzɪz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "choose" or "chooses"?
"choose" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,296 in our English list, against #9,148 for "chooses". 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 "choose" and "chooses" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "choose" 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 #492,290 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "choose" and "chooses" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "caboose vs choose". 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 #492,290 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