chancesvschantéesWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: chances is a noun, chantées is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“chances” is a noun and “chantées” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,310
“chances” frequency rank
#42,227
“chantées” frequency rank
44537
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chances chantées
Definition Pluriel de chance. Participe passé féminin pluriel du verbe chanter.

Where the eye mixes chances and chantées

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

7 ch
chances
8 ch
chantées

Look-alike desk: chances vs chantées

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: chances is \ʃɑ̃s\ while chantées is \ʃɑ̃.te\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44537, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chances is recorded at frequency rank #2,310, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʃɑ̃s\. chantées is at rank #42,227, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʃɑ̃.te\.

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 44537, this pair ranks #209,741 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of chances vs chantées

Shared letters: acehns. Private to "chances": -. Private to "chantées": .

"chances" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC  ·  "chantées" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chancescahnces · cchances · chacnes · chancces · chancess · chancse · chanecs · channces

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "chances" for "chantées" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "chances" is a noun and "chantées" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "chances" or "chantées" show up more?
"chances" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,310 in our French list, against #42,227 for "chantées". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "chances" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "chantées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #209,741 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chances" and "chantées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chantées 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 #209,741 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