chahvsclapTell them apart

Which to use

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

#47,782
“chah” frequency rank
#24,906
“clap” frequency rank
72688
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chah clap
Definition Titre des monarques de Perse, puis de l’Iran. Outil de cinématographie composé de deux planchettes reliées par une charnière, que l'on filme en train d'être rabattu, et en enregistre simultanément le son du claquement sec, en début de séquence de tournage, ceci permettant une synchronisation ultérieure de l'image et du son.

Where the eye mixes chah and clap

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. chah and clap follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
chah
4 ch
clap

Look-alike desk: chah vs clap

A purely visual mix-up. chah (\ʃa\) and clap (\klap\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72688, 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\. clap is at rank #24,906, tagged as anoun, pronounced \klap\.

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 72688, this pair ranks #43,136 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of chah vs clap

Shared letters: ac. Private to "chah": h. Private to "clap": lp.

"chah" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "clap" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chah ← cahh · cchah · chahh · chha · chhah · hcah
  • clap ← calp · cclap · clapp · cllap · clpa · lcap

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "chah" for "clap" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ʃa\ versus \klap\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "chah" vs "clap" - which ranks higher?
"clap" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,906 in our French list, against #47,782 for "chah". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "chah" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "clap" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #43,136 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chah" and "clap" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "CCAS vs chah". 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 #43,136 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