chaisesvschartesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#9,130
“chaises” frequency rank
#17,369
“chartes” frequency rank
26499
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chaises chartes
Definition Pluriel de chaise. Pluriel de charte.

Where the eye mixes chaises and chartes

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

7 ch
chaises
7 ch
chartes

Why the eye confuses chaises with chartes

A purely visual mix-up. chaises (\ʃɛz\) and chartes (\ʃaʁt\) 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 26499, 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\. chartes is at rank #17,369, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʃaʁt\.

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 26499, this pair ranks #334,626 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of chaises vs chartes

Shared letters: acehs. Private to "chaises": i. Private to "chartes": rt.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chaisescahises · cchaises · chaiess · chaisess · chaisses · chasies · chhaises · chiases
  • chartescahrtes · cchartes · chartess · chartse · charttes · chatres · chhartes · chrates

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "chaises" and "chartes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ʃɛz\ versus \ʃaʁt\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "chaises" or "chartes" show up more?
"chaises" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,130 in our French list, against #17,369 for "chartes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "chaises" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "chartes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #334,626 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chaises" and "chartes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "charmée vs chartes". 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 #334,626 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