ChâtelvschattesWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Châtel is a name, chattes is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Châtel” is a name and “chattes” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#34,465
“Châtel” frequency rank
#28,481
“chattes” frequency rank
62946
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Châtel chattes
Definition Commune française située en Haute-Savoie. Pluriel de chatte.

Letter map: Châtel vs chattes

Shared letters muted; letters that set Châtel and chattes apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

6 ch
Châtel
7 ch
chattes

Role in the sentence - Châtel and chattes

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Châtel is aname and chattesanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62946, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Châtel is recorded at frequency rank #34,465, classified as aname. chattes is at rank #28,481, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ʃat\.

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 62946, this pair ranks #84,415 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Châtel vs chattes

Shared letters: ceht. Private to "Châtel": . Private to "chattes": as.

"Châtel" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "chattes" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chattescahttes · cchattes · chates · chatets · chattess · chattse · chhattes · chtates

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Châtel" for "chattes" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Châtel" is a name and "chattes" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Châtel" vs "chattes" - which ranks higher?
"chattes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,481 in our French list, against #34,465 for "Châtel". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "Châtel" and "chattes".

  • Full dictionary entry for "Châtel" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "chattes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #84,415 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Châtel" and "chattes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Châtel vs clavel". 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 #84,415 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