Which to use
“chance” is a noun and “chatte” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #577
- “chance” frequency rank
- #6,274
- “chatte” frequency rank
- 6851
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | chance | chatte |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Comparable à une chatte : joueur, caresseur, flatteur. |
Where the eye mixes chance and chatte
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. chance and chatte follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: chance vs chatte
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: chance is \ʃɑ̃s\ while chatte is \ʃat\. 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 6851, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
chance is recorded at frequency rank #577, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʃɑ̃s\. chatte is at rank #6,274, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ʃat\.
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 6851, this pair ranks #425,009 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of chance vs chatte
Shared letters: aceh. Private to "chance": n. Private to "chatte": t.
"chance" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV · "chatte" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "chance" for "chatte" ever safe?
Which is more common, "chance" or "chatte"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "chance" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "chatte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #425,009 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "chance" and "chatte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chapter vs chatte". 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 #425,009 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.