chapevschaqueWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#35,422
“chape” frequency rank
#210
“chaque” frequency rank
35632
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chape chaque
Definition Sorte de manteau long, sans plis et agrafé par devant, allant jusqu’aux talons, que portent l’évêque, le célébrant, les chantres, etc. durant l’office ; se dit aussi du grand manteau de drap ou de serge des chanoines. On nomme aussi ce vêtement un pluvial. 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 chape and chaque

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. chape runs 5 letters (CCVCV) against chaque's 6 (CCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
chape
6 ch
chaque

Why the eye confuses chape with chaque

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: chape is \ʃap\ while chaque is \ʃak\. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35632, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chape is recorded at frequency rank #35,422, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʃap\. 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 35632, this pair ranks #275,335 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of chape vs chaque

Shared letters: aceh. Private to "chape": p. Private to "chaque": qu.

"chape" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "chaque" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chape ← cahpe · cchape · chappe · chhape · chpae · hcape
  • chaque ← cahque · cchaque · chaqeu · chaqque · chauqe · chhaque · chqaue · hcaque

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "chape" for "chaque" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "chape" is a noun and "chaque" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "chape" vs "chaque" - which ranks higher?
"chaque" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #210 in our French list, against #35,422 for "chape". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "chape" 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 #275,335 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chape" and "chaque" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chape vs chapel". 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 #275,335 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