chacunvschanWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: chacun is a pronoun, chan is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“chacun” is a pronoun and “chan” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#681
“chacun” frequency rank
#9,131
“chan” frequency rank
9812
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chacun chan
Definition Chaque personne, chaque chose d’un tout, d’un ensemble dont il est question. Langue parlée en Birmanie par les Chans.

Where the eye mixes chacun and chan

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
chacun
4 ch
chan

Why the eye confuses chacun with chan

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: chacun is \ʃa.kœ̃\ while chan is \tʃan\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (pronoun vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9812, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chacun is recorded at frequency rank #681, classified as apron, pronounced \ʃa.kœ̃\. chan is at rank #9,131, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tʃan\.

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 9812, this pair ranks #415,313 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of chacun vs chan

Shared letters: achn. Private to "chacun": u. Private to "chan": -.

"chacun" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "chan" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chacuncahcun · cchacun · chaccun · chacnu · chacunn · chaucn · chcaun · chhacun
  • chancahn · cchan · chann · chhan · chna · hcan

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "chacun" and "chan" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "chacun" is a pronoun and "chan" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "chacun" or "chan" show up more?
"chacun" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #681 in our French list, against #9,131 for "chan". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "chacun" and "chan" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "chacun" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "chan" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #415,313 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chacun" and "chan" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chan vs coon". 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 #415,313 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list