charsvschartsWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#8,971
“chars” frequency rank
#37,226
“charts” frequency rank
46197
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chars charts
Definition Pluriel de char. Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent du verbe to chart.

Where the eye mixes chars and charts

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

5 ch
chars
6 ch
charts

Why the eye confuses chars with charts

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: chars is \ʃaʁ\ while charts is \tʃɑː(ɹ)ts\. 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 46197, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chars is recorded at frequency rank #8,971, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʃaʁ\. charts is at rank #37,226, tagged as averb, pronounced \tʃɑː(ɹ)ts\.

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 46197, this pair ranks #196,846 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of chars vs charts

Shared letters: achrs. Private to "chars": -. Private to "charts": t.

"chars" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "charts" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • charscahrs · cchars · charrs · charss · chasr · chhars · chras · hcars
  • chartscahrts · ccharts · charrts · charst · chartss · chartts · chatrs · chharts

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "chars" for "charts" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "chars" is a noun and "charts" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "chars" or "charts"?
"chars" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,971 in our French list, against #37,226 for "charts". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "chars" and "charts" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "chars" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "charts" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #196,846 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chars" and "charts" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "charity vs charts". 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 #196,846 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