chartesvschauvesTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#17,369
“chartes” frequency rank
#20,083
“chauves” frequency rank
37452
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chartes chauves
Definition Pluriel de charte. Pluriel de chauve.

Where the eye mixes chartes and chauves

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

7 ch
chartes
7 ch
chauves

Visual trap between chartes and chauves

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: chartes is \ʃaʁt\ while chauves is \ʃov\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37452, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chartes is recorded at frequency rank #17,369, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʃaʁt\. chauves is at rank #20,083, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ʃov\.

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 37452, this pair ranks #262,420 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of chartes vs chauves

Shared letters: acehs. Private to "chartes": rt. Private to "chauves": uv.

"chartes" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC  ·  "chauves" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chartescahrtes · cchartes · chartess · chartse · charttes · chatres · chhartes · chrates
  • chauvescahuves · cchauves · chauevs · chauvess · chauvse · chauvves · chavues · chhauves

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "chartes" and "chauves" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "chartes" is a noun and "chauves" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "chartes" vs "chauves" - which ranks higher?
"chartes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,369 in our French list, against #20,083 for "chauves". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "chartes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "chauves" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #262,420 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chartes" and "chauves" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "charmée vs chartes". 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 #262,420 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