chairesvschartesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#38,196
“chaires” frequency rank
#17,369
“chartes” frequency rank
55565
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chaires chartes
Definition Pluriel de chaire. Pluriel de charte.

Where the eye mixes chaires and chartes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. chaires (CCVVCVC) and chartes (CCVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
chaires
7 ch
chartes

Visual trap between chaires and chartes

A purely visual mix-up. chaires (\ʃɛʁ\) and chartes (\ʃaʁt\) 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 55565, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chaires is recorded at frequency rank #38,196, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʃɛʁ\. chartes is at rank #17,369, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʃaʁt\.

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 55565, this pair ranks #126,664 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of chaires vs chartes

Shared letters: acehrs. Private to "chaires": i. Private to "chartes": t.

"chaires" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC  ·  "chartes" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chaires ← cchaires · chairess · chairres · chairse · charies · chhaires · chiares · hcaires
  • chartes ← cahrtes · cchartes · chartess · chartse · charttes · chatres · chhartes · chrates

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "chaires" for "chartes" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ʃɛʁ\ versus \ʃaʁt\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "chaires" or "chartes"?
"chartes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,369 in our French list, against #38,196 for "chaires". 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 "chaires" and "chartes" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "chaires" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "chartes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #126,664 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chaires" and "chartes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chaires vs chantres". 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 #126,664 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