chais vs champs, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#36,299
“chais” frequency rank: #2,263
“champs” frequency rank: 38562
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	chais	champs
Definition	Pluriel de chai (pièce).	Pluriel de champ.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set chais and champs apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch

chais

6 ch

champs

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. chais (\ʃɛ\) and champs (\ʃɑ̃\) 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 38562, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chais is recorded at frequency rank #36,299, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʃɛ\. champs is at rank #2,263, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʃɑ̃\.

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 38562, this pair ranks #254,425 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of chais vs champs

Shared letters: achs. Private to "chais": i. Private to "champs": mp.

"chais" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC · "champs" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

chais ← cahis · cchais · chaiss · chasi · chhais · chias · hcais
champs ← cahmps · cchamps · chammps · champps · champss · chamsp · chapms · chhamps

Frequency comparison

chais#36,299

champs#2,263

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "chais" and "champs" be used interchangeably?

No. They are said differently (\ʃɛ\ versus \ʃɑ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Which is more common, "chais" or "champs"?

"champs" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,263 in our French list, against #36,299 for "chais". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering chais vs champs

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “chais” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable