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. |
Same sound, different letters: chèques vs shake
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 2 letters. chèques runs 7 letters (CCVCVVC) against shake's 5 (CCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Same sound, different spelling - chèques / shake
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
- shake ← hsake · sahke · shaek · shakke · shhake · shkae · sshake
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "chèques" for "shake" ever safe?
Which is more common, "chèques" or "shake"?
After this comparison
You've separated the homophone pair "chèques" / "shake". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "chèques" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "shake" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #275,422 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "chèques" and "shake" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "shake vs stase". 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 #275,422 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.