Which to use
“charte” is a noun and “chaste” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,811
- “charte” frequency rank
- #42,791
- “chaste” frequency rank
- 45602
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | charte | chaste |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Acte écrit public ou privé de l’époque médiévale, fait et passé devant témoins et portant le plus souvent le sceau de son auteur. | Qui s'abstient des plaisirs de la chair. |
Where the eye mixes charte and chaste
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. charte and chaste follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses charte with chaste
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: charte is \ʃaʁt\ while chaste is \ʃast\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - r in “charte” becomes s in “chaste”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45602, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
charte is recorded at frequency rank #2,811, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʃaʁt\. chaste is at rank #42,791, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ʃast\.
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 45602, this pair ranks #201,462 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of charte vs chaste
Shared letters: aceht. Private to "charte": r. Private to "chaste": s.
"charte" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV · "chaste" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "charte" for "chaste" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "charte" or "chaste" show up more?
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 "charte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "chaste" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #201,462 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "charte" and "chaste" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chapter vs chaste". 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 #201,462 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.