chahvscherWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: chah is a noun, cher is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“chah” is a noun and “cher” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#47,782
“chah” frequency rank
#682
“cher” frequency rank
48464
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chah cher
Definition Titre des monarques de Perse, puis de l’Iran. Qui est chéri, tendrement aimé, auquel on tient beaucoup.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set chah and cher apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch
chah
4 ch
cher

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: chah is \ʃa\ while cher is \ʃɛʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48464, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chah is recorded at frequency rank #47,782, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʃa\. 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 48464, this pair ranks #178,702 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of chah vs cher

Shared letters: ch. Private to "chah": a. Private to "cher": er.

"chah" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "cher" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chahcahh · cchah · chahh · chha · chhah · hcah
  • cherccher · cehr · cherr · chher · chre · hcer

Frequency comparison

chah#47,782
cher#682

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "chah" and "cher" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "chah" is a noun and "cher" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "chah" or "cher"?
"cher" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #682 in our French list, against #47,782 for "chah". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering chah vs cher

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “chah”; for an adjective, it's “cher”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “chah” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list