chainvschuisTell them apart

Quick tell: chain is a noun, chuis is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“chain” is a noun and “chuis” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#29,689
“chain” frequency rank
#28,483
“chuis” frequency rank
58172
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chain chuis
Definition Chaîne. Contraction de je suis du verbe être.

Where the eye mixes chain and chuis

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
chain
5 ch
chuis

Visual trap between chain and chuis

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: chain is \t͡ʃeɪn\ while chuis is \ʃɥi\. 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58172, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chain is recorded at frequency rank #29,689, classified as anoun, pronounced \t͡ʃeɪn\. chuis is at rank #28,483, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʃɥi\.

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 58172, this pair ranks #110,619 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of chain vs chuis

Shared letters: chi. Private to "chain": an. Private to "chuis": su.

"chain" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC  ·  "chuis" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chaincahin · cchain · chainn · chani · chhain · hcain
  • chuiscchuis · chhuis · chius · chuiss · chusi · cuhis · hcuis

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "chain" and "chuis" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "chain" is a noun and "chuis" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "chain" or "chuis" show up more?
"chuis" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,483 in our French list, against #29,689 for "chain". 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 "chain" and "chuis" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "chain" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "chuis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #110,619 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chain" and "chuis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chah vs chain". 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 #110,619 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