cherchavscherchéWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“chercha” and “cherché” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#31,880
“chercha” frequency rank
#3,666
“cherché” frequency rank
35546
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chercha cherché
Definition Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple du verbe chercher. Participe passé masculin singulier du verbe chercher.

Where the eye mixes chercha and cherché

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

7 ch
chercha
7 ch
cherché

Look-alike desk: chercha vs cherché

A purely visual mix-up. chercha (\ʃɛʁ.ʃa\) and cherché (\ʃɛʁ.ʃe\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - a in “chercha” becomes é in “cherché”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35546, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chercha is recorded at frequency rank #31,880, classified as averb, pronounced \ʃɛʁ.ʃa\. cherché is at rank #3,666, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʃɛʁ.ʃe\.

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 35546, this pair ranks #275,942 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of chercha vs cherché

Shared letters: cehr. Private to "chercha": a. Private to "cherché": é.

"chercha" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCCV  ·  "cherché" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cherchacchercha · cehrcha · checrha · chercah · cherccha · cherchha · cherhca · cherrcha

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "chercha" and "cherché" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ʃɛʁ.ʃa\ versus \ʃɛʁ.ʃe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "chercha" vs "cherché" - which ranks higher?
"cherché" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,666 in our French list, against #31,880 for "chercha". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "chercha" and "cherché" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "chercha" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cherché" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #275,942 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chercha" and "cherché" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chercha vs cherchée". 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 #275,942 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