chaisesvschargesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#9,130
“chaises” frequency rank
#2,465
“charges” frequency rank
11595
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chaises charges
Definition Pluriel de chaise. Pluriel de charge.

Where the eye mixes chaises and charges

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
chaises
7 ch
charges

Look-alike desk: chaises vs charges

A purely visual mix-up. chaises (\ʃɛz\) and charges (\ʃaʁʒ\) 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 11595, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chaises is recorded at frequency rank #9,130, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʃɛz\. charges is at rank #2,465, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʃaʁʒ\.

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 11595, this pair ranks #408,571 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of chaises vs charges

Shared letters: acehs. Private to "chaises": i. Private to "charges": gr.

"chaises" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC  ·  "charges" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chaisescahises · cchaises · chaiess · chaisess · chaisses · chasies · chhaises · chiases
  • chargescahrges · ccharges · chagres · charegs · chargess · chargges · chargse · charrges

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "chaises" for "charges" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ʃɛz\ versus \ʃaʁʒ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "chaises" or "charges" show up more?
"charges" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,465 in our French list, against #9,130 for "chaises". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "chaises" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "charges" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #408,571 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chaises" and "charges" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chaises vs chassées". 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 #408,571 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