Which to use
“cherché” and “chercher” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,666
- “cherché” frequency rank
- #717
- “chercher” frequency rank
- 4383
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cherché | chercher |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Participe passé masculin singulier du verbe chercher. | Se donner du mouvement, du soin ou de la peine pour trouver quelqu’un ou quelque chose. |
Same sound, different letters: cherché vs chercher
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters.
Ear matches; page differs - cherché and chercher
This is the hard kind. cherché and chercher are pronounced identically (\ʃɛʁ.ʃe\) and both work as averb. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4383, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cherché is recorded at frequency rank #3,666, classified as averb, pronounced \ʃɛʁ.ʃe\. chercher is at rank #717, 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 4383, this pair ranks #431,746 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of cherché vs chercher
Shared letters: cehr. Private to "cherché": é. Private to "chercher": -.
"cherché" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCCV · "chercher" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- chercher ← cchercher · cehrcher · checrher · cherccher · chercehr · chercherr · cherchher · cherchre
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "cherché" and "chercher" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "cherché" or "chercher" show up more?
What to do next
"cherché" and "chercher" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "cherché" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "chercher" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #431,746 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cherché" and "chercher" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chercher vs chercherai". 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 #431,746 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.