chaisvschanTell them apart

Which to use

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

#36,299
“chais” frequency rank
#9,131
“chan” frequency rank
45430
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chais chan
Definition Pluriel de chai (pièce). Langue parlée en Birmanie par les Chans.

Where the eye mixes chais and chan

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
chais
4 ch
chan

Look-alike desk: chais vs chan

A purely visual mix-up. chais (\ʃɛ\) and chan (\tʃan\) 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 45430, 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\. chan is at rank #9,131, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tʃan\.

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 45430, this pair ranks #202,762 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of chais vs chan

Shared letters: ach. Private to "chais": is. Private to "chan": n.

"chais" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC  ·  "chan" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chaiscahis · cchais · chaiss · chasi · chhais · chias · hcais
  • chancahn · cchan · chann · chhan · chna · hcan

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "chais" for "chan" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ʃɛ\ versus \tʃan\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "chais" vs "chan" - which ranks higher?
"chan" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,131 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.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "chais" and "chan" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "chais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "chan" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #202,762 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chais" and "chan" 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 #202,762 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