chairsvschartsWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#36,754
“chairs” frequency rank
#37,226
“charts” frequency rank
73980
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chairs charts
Definition Pluriel de chair. Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent du verbe to chart.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set chairs and charts apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
chairs
6 ch
charts

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: chairs is \ʃɛʁ\ while charts is \tʃɑː(ɹ)ts\. 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 73980, 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\. charts is at rank #37,226, tagged as averb, pronounced \tʃɑː(ɹ)ts\.

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 73980, this pair ranks #38,676 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of chairs vs charts

Shared letters: achrs. Private to "chairs": i. Private to "charts": t.

"chairs" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCC  ·  "charts" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chairscahirs · cchairs · chairrs · chairss · chaisr · charis · chhairs · chiars
  • chartscahrts · ccharts · charrts · charst · chartss · chartts · chatrs · chharts

Frequency comparison

chairs#36,754
charts#37,226

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "chairs" and "charts" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "chairs" is a noun and "charts" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "chairs" or "charts"?
"chairs" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #36,754 in our French list, against #37,226 for "charts". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering chairs vs charts

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “chairs”; for a verb, it's “charts”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “chairs” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list