ChellesvschèresTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#40,175
“Chelles” frequency rank
#9,289
“chères” frequency rank
49464
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Chelles chères
Definition Commune française, située dans le département de l’Oise. Féminin pluriel de cher.

Where the eye mixes Chelles and chères

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

7 ch
Chelles
6 ch
chères

Look-alike desk: Chelles vs chères

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Chelles is \ʃɛl\ while chères is [ʃɛʁ]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49464, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Chelles is recorded at frequency rank #40,175, classified as aname, pronounced \ʃɛl\. chères is at rank #9,289, tagged as anadj, 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 49464, this pair ranks #170,442 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Chelles vs chères

Shared letters: cehs. Private to "Chelles": l. Private to "chères": .

"Chelles" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC  ·  "chères" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Chellescchelles · cehlles · chelels · cheles · chelless · chellse · chhelles · chleles

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Chelles" for "chères" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Chelles" is a name and "chères" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Chelles" vs "chères" - which ranks higher?
"chères" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,289 in our French list, against #40,175 for "Chelles". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Chelles" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "chères" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #170,442 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Chelles" and "chères" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Chelles vs chéries". 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 #170,442 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