chaudvsshowsTell them apart

Quick tell: chaud is a adjective, shows is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#1,357
“chaud” frequency rank
#17,271
“shows” frequency rank
18628
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chaud shows
Definition De température plus haute que la normale, de température élevée. Pluriel de show.

Same sound, different letters: chaud vs shows

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 1 letter.

5 ch
chaud
5 ch
shows

Same sound, different spelling - chaud / shows

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: chaud and shows carry the same recorded pronunciation, \ʃo\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other anoun, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They share most of their letters but differ in 4 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18628, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chaud is recorded at frequency rank #1,357, classified as anadj, pronounced \ʃo\. shows is at rank #17,271, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʃo\.

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 18628, this pair ranks #377,330 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of chaud vs shows

Shared letters: h. Private to "chaud": acdu. Private to "shows": osw.

"chaud" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC  ·  "shows" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chaudcahud · cchaud · chadu · chaudd · chhaud · chuad · hcaud
  • showshsows · shhows · shosw · showss · showws · shwos · sohws · sshows

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "chaud" and "shows" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "chaud" is an adjective and "shows" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "chaud" or "shows"?
"chaud" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,357 in our French list, against #17,271 for "shows". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "chaud" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "shows" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #377,330 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chaud" and "shows" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "shower vs shows". 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 #377,330 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