chériesvsciergesConfusable pair

Quick tell: chéries is a adjective, cierges is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“chéries” is an adjective and “cierges” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#43,843
“chéries” frequency rank
#45,510
“cierges” frequency rank
89353
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chéries cierges
Definition Féminin pluriel de chéri. Pluriel de cierge.

Where the eye mixes chéries and cierges

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. chéries (CCVCVVC) and cierges (CVVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
chéries
7 ch
cierges

Visual trap between chéries and cierges

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: chéries is \ʃe.ʁi\ while cierges is \sjɛʁʒ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 89353, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chéries is recorded at frequency rank #43,843, classified as anadj, pronounced \ʃe.ʁi\. cierges is at rank #45,510, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sjɛʁʒ\.

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 89353, this pair ranks #5,890 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of chéries vs cierges

Shared letters: ceirs. Private to "chéries": hé. Private to "cierges": g.

"chéries" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVVC  ·  "cierges" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cierges ← ccierges · ceirges · ciegres · cieregs · ciergess · ciergges · ciergse · cierrges

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "chéries" for "cierges" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "chéries" is an adjective and "cierges" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "chéries" or "cierges" show up more?
"chéries" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #43,843 in our French list, against #45,510 for "cierges". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "chéries" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cierges" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #5,890 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chéries" and "cierges" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cierges vs courges". 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 #5,890 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