Which to use
“chairs” and “chais” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #36,754
- “chairs” frequency rank
- #36,299
- “chais” frequency rank
- 73053
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | chairs | chais |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de chair. | Pluriel de chai (pièce). |
Where the eye mixes chairs and chais
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. chairs runs 6 letters (CCVVCC) against chais's 5 (CCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between chairs and chais
A purely visual mix-up. chairs (\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 73053, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
chairs is recorded at frequency rank #36,754, 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 73053, this pair ranks #41,788 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of chairs vs chais
Shared letters: achis. Private to "chairs": r. Private to "chais": -.
"chairs" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCC · "chais" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "chairs" and "chais" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "chairs" vs "chais" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "chairs" and "chais" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "chairs" 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 #41,788 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "chairs" 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 #41,788 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.