chargéevscharrueTell them apart

Which to use

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

#3,739
“chargée” frequency rank
#28,480
“charrue” frequency rank
32219
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chargée charrue
Definition Celle qui est responsable d’une charge. Ne s’utilise guère que dans les expressions : Terme générique par lequel on désigne les différents types d’instruments de labourage qui varient selon les pays, les époques, les techniques et les besoins.

Where the eye mixes chargée and charrue

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. chargée and charrue follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCCVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
chargée
7 ch
charrue

Look-alike desk: chargée vs charrue

A purely visual mix-up. chargée (\ʃaʁ.ʒe\) and charrue (\ʃa.ʁy\) 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 32219, 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\. charrue is at rank #28,480, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʃa.ʁy\.

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 32219, this pair ranks #298,722 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of chargée vs charrue

Shared letters: acehr. Private to "chargée": gé. Private to "charrue": u.

"chargée" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVV  ·  "charrue" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • charrue ← cahrrue · ccharrue · charreu · charue · charure · chharrue · chrarue · hcarrue

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "chargée" and "charrue" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ʃaʁ.ʒe\ versus \ʃa.ʁy\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "chargée" or "charrue"?
"chargée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,739 in our French list, against #28,480 for "charrue". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "chargée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "charrue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #298,722 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chargée" and "charrue" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "charmée vs charrue". 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 #298,722 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