Which to use
“chemin” is a noun and “chemine” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #735
- “chemin” frequency rank
- #45,505
- “chemine” frequency rank
- 46240
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | chemin | chemine |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Voie, route pratiquée pour communiquer, pour aller d’un lieu à un autre. | Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de cheminer. |
Where the eye mixes chemin and chemine
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. chemin runs 6 letters (CCVCVC) against chemine's 7 (CCVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: chemin vs chemine
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: chemin is \ʃə.mɛ̃\ while chemine is \ʃə.min\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “chemin” sits inside “chemine”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46240, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
chemin is recorded at frequency rank #735, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʃə.mɛ̃\. chemine is at rank #45,505, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʃə.min\.
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 46240, this pair ranks #196,485 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of chemin vs chemine
Shared letters: cehimn. Private to "chemin": -. Private to "chemine": -.
"chemin" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC · "chemine" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "chemin" for "chemine" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "chemin" or "chemine" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "chemin" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "chemine" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #196,485 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "chemin" and "chemine" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chemine vs cheminer". 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 #196,485 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.