chancevschaqueConfusable pair

Quick tell: chance is a noun, chaque is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“chance” is a noun and “chaque” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#577
“chance” frequency rank
#210
“chaque” frequency rank
787
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chance chaque
Definition Concours de circonstances jugé malheureux ou heureux quant à son influence sur le succès, la réalisation, la réussite ou l’échec d’une action ou d’un événement ; contexte jugé favorable ou non d’une action. Déterminant distributif, qui se place toujours avant le nom et n’a pas de pluriel. Se dit d’une personne, d’une chose qui fait partie d’un tout, d’un ensemble.

Where the eye mixes chance and chaque

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
chance
6 ch
chaque

Visual trap between chance and chaque

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: chance is \ʃɑ̃s\ while chaque is \ʃak\. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 787, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chance is recorded at frequency rank #577, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʃɑ̃s\. chaque is at rank #210, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ʃak\.

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 787, this pair ranks #439,114 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of chance vs chaque

Shared letters: aceh. Private to "chance": n. Private to "chaque": qu.

"chance" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV  ·  "chaque" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chancecahnce · cchance · chacne · chancce · chanec · channce · chhance · chnace
  • chaquecahque · cchaque · chaqeu · chaqque · chauqe · chhaque · chqaue · hcaque

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "chance" and "chaque" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "chance" is a noun and "chaque" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "chance" or "chaque"?
"chaque" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #210 in our French list, against #577 for "chance". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "chance" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "chaque" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #439,114 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chance" and "chaque" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chaque vs claquée". 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 #439,114 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