checkvstchèqueWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#11,188
“check” frequency rank
#7,253
“tchèque” frequency rank
18441
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature check tchèque
Definition Vérification, examen­. Relatif aux Tchèques, leur pays, leur langue, leur culture.

Same sound, different letters: check vs tchèque

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 3 letters. check runs 5 letters (CCVCC) against tchèque's 7 (CCCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
check
7 ch
tchèque

Same sound, different spelling - check / tchèque

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: check and tchèque carry the same recorded pronunciation, \tʃɛk\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18441, 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\. tchèque is at rank #7,253, tagged as anadj, pronounced \tʃɛk\.

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 18441, this pair ranks #378,302 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of check vs tchèque

Shared letters: ceh. Private to "check": k. Private to "tchèque": qtuè.

"check" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "tchèque" · 7 letters · shape CCCVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • check ← ccheck · cehck · chcek · checck · checkk · chekc · chheck · hceck

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "check" for "tchèque" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "check" is a noun and "tchèque" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "check" or "tchèque"?
"tchèque" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,253 in our French list, against #11,188 for "check". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "check" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tchèque" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #378,302 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "check" and "tchèque" 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 #378,302 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