Which to use
“chœur” is a noun and “cher” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #8,357
- “chœur” frequency rank
- #682
- “cher” frequency rank
- 9039
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | chœur | cher |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troupe de gens qui chantent ensemble. | Qui est chéri, tendrement aimé, auquel on tient beaucoup. |
Where the eye mixes chœur and cher
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. chœur runs 5 letters (CCVVC) against cher's 4 (CCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: chœur vs cher
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: chœur is \kœʁ\ while cher is \ʃɛʁ\. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9039, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
chœur is recorded at frequency rank #8,357, classified as anoun, pronounced \kœʁ\. cher is at rank #682, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ʃɛʁ\.
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 9039, this pair ranks #418,008 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of chœur vs cher
Shared letters: chr. Private to "chœur": uœ. Private to "cher": e.
"chœur" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC · "cher" · 4 letters · shape CCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- cher ← ccher · cehr · cherr · chher · chre · hcer
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "chœur" for "cher" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "chœur" or "cher" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "chœur" and "cher" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "chœur" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cher" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #418,008 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "chœur" and "cher" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "CCE vs cher". 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 #418,008 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.