chairevschaisTell them apart

Which to use

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

#9,287
“chaire” frequency rank
#36,299
“chais” frequency rank
45586
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chaire chais
Definition Sorte de tribune élevée et ordinairement surmontée d’un dais ou baldaquin dans laquelle se place le prêtre ou le pasteur pour prêcher, pour faire quelque lecture aux assistants, etc. Pluriel de chai (pièce).

Where the eye mixes chaire and chais

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. chaire runs 6 letters (CCVVCV) against chais's 5 (CCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
chaire
5 ch
chais

Visual trap between chaire and chais

A purely visual mix-up. chaire (\ʃɛʁ\) and chais (\ʃɛ\) 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 45586, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chaire is recorded at frequency rank #9,287, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʃɛʁ\. chais is at rank #36,299, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʃɛ\.

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 45586, this pair ranks #201,583 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of chaire vs chais

Shared letters: achi. Private to "chaire": er. Private to "chais": s.

"chaire" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV  ·  "chais" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chaire ← cchaire · chairre · charie · chhaire · chiare · hcaire
  • chais ← cahis · cchais · chaiss · chasi · chhais · chias · hcais

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "chaire" and "chais" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ʃɛʁ\ versus \ʃɛ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "chaire" or "chais"?
"chaire" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,287 in our French list, against #36,299 for "chais". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "chaire" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "chais" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #201,583 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chaire" and "chais" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chah vs chais". 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 #201,583 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