chargéevschargesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#3,739
“chargée” frequency rank
#2,465
“charges” frequency rank
6204
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chargée charges
Definition Celle qui est responsable d’une charge. Ne s’utilise guère que dans les expressions : Pluriel de charge.

Where the eye mixes chargée and charges

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. chargée (CCVCCVV) and charges (CCVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
chargée
7 ch
charges

Look-alike desk: chargée vs charges

A purely visual mix-up. chargée (\ʃaʁ.ʒe\) and charges (\ʃaʁʒ\) 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 6204, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chargée is recorded at frequency rank #3,739, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʃaʁ.ʒe\. charges is at rank #2,465, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʃaʁʒ\.

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 6204, this pair ranks #426,869 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of chargée vs charges

Shared letters: aceghr. Private to "chargée": é. Private to "charges": s.

"chargée" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVV  ·  "charges" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • charges ← cahrges · ccharges · chagres · charegs · chargess · chargges · chargse · charrges

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "chargée" and "charges" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ʃaʁ.ʒe\ versus \ʃaʁʒ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "chargée" or "charges" show up more?
"charges" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,465 in our French list, against #3,739 for "chargée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "chargée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "charges" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #426,869 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chargée" and "charges" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chargée vs charmée". 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 #426,869 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