Which to use
“chaînes” and “craintes” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,665
- “chaînes” frequency rank
- #10,479
- “craintes” frequency rank
- 14144
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | chaînes | craintes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de chaîne. | Pluriel de crainte. |
Where the eye mixes chaînes and craintes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. chaînes runs 7 letters (CCVVCVC) against craintes's 8 (CCVVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses chaînes with craintes
A purely visual mix-up. chaînes (\ʃɛn\) and craintes (\kʁɛ̃t\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14144, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
chaînes is recorded at frequency rank #3,665, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʃɛn\. craintes is at rank #10,479, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kʁɛ̃t\.
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 14144, this pair ranks #398,003 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of chaînes vs craintes
Shared letters: acens. Private to "chaînes": hî. Private to "craintes": irt.
"chaînes" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC · "craintes" · 8 letters · shape CCVVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- craintes ← carintes · ccraintes · crainets · crainntes · craintess · craintse · crainttes · craitnes
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "chaînes" and "craintes" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "chaînes" or "craintes" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "chaînes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "craintes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #398,003 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "chaînes" and "craintes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "craintes vs craintif". 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 #398,003 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.