chèquesvsshakeWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: chèques is a noun, shake is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“chèques” is a noun and “shake” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#10,841
“chèques” frequency rank
#24,775
“shake” frequency rank
35616
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chèques shake
Definition Pluriel de chèque. Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de shaker.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set chèques and shake apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

7 ch
chèques
5 ch
shake

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: chèques and shake carry the same recorded pronunciation, \ʃɛk\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other averb, 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 35616, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chèques is recorded at frequency rank #10,841, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʃɛk\. shake is at rank #24,775, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʃɛk\.

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 35616, this pair ranks #275,422 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of chèques vs shake

Shared letters: ehs. Private to "chèques": cquè. Private to "shake": ak.

"chèques" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVVC  ·  "shake" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • shakehsake · sahke · shaek · shakke · shhake · shkae · sshake

Frequency comparison

chèques#10,841
shake#24,775

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "chèques" and "shake" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "chèques" is a noun and "shake" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "chèques" or "shake"?
"chèques" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,841 in our French list, against #24,775 for "shake". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering chèques vs shake

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “chèques”; for a verb, it's “shake”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “chèques” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list