Which to use
“check” and “chère” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #11,188
- “check” frequency rank
- #2,764
- “chère” frequency rank
- 13952
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | check | chère |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Vérification, examen. | Personne considérée comme chère, qui est tenu avec une affectueuse haute estime ou, par ironie, à qui est adressée une forme de dédain. |
Where the eye mixes check and chère
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: check vs chère
A purely visual mix-up. check (\tʃɛk\) and chère (\ʃɛʁ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13952, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
check is recorded at frequency rank #11,188, classified as anoun, pronounced \tʃɛk\. chère is at rank #2,764, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʃɛʁ\.
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 13952, this pair ranks #398,820 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of check vs chère
Shared letters: ceh. Private to "check": k. Private to "chère": rè.
"check" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "chère" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- check ← ccheck · cehck · chcek · checck · checkk · chekc · chheck · hceck
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "check" for "chère" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "check" or "chère" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "check" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "chère" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #398,820 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "check" and "chère" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "check vs cheik". 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 #398,820 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.