chattevschattesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#6,274
“chatte” frequency rank
#28,481
“chattes” frequency rank
34755
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chatte chattes
Definition Comparable à une chatte : joueur, caresseur, flatteur. Pluriel de chatte.

Same sound, different letters: chatte vs chattes

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters.

6 ch
chatte
7 ch
chattes

Ear matches; page differs - chatte and chattes

This is the hard kind. chatte and chattes are pronounced identically (\ʃat\) and both work as anadjective. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “chatte” sits inside “chattes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34755, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chatte is recorded at frequency rank #6,274, classified as anadj, pronounced \ʃat\. 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 34755, this pair ranks #281,621 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of chatte vs chattes

Shared letters: aceht. Private to "chatte": -. Private to "chattes": s.

"chatte" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV  ·  "chattes" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chattecahtte · cchatte · chate · chatet · chhatte · chtate · hcatte
  • chattescahttes · cchattes · chates · chatets · chattess · chattse · chhattes · chtates

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "chatte" for "chattes" ever safe?
No. They are pronounced the same (\ʃat\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Which is more common, "chatte" or "chattes"?
"chatte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,274 in our French list, against #28,481 for "chattes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

"chatte" and "chattes" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "chatte" 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 #281,621 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chatte" and "chattes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chantres vs chattes". 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 #281,621 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