chèvresvschevreuseWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#13,540
“chèvres” frequency rank
#37,228
“chevreuse” frequency rank
50768
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chèvres chevreuse
Definition Pluriel de chèvre. Ancienne variété de pêche.

Where the eye mixes chèvres and chevreuse

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. chèvres runs 7 letters (CCVCCVC) against chevreuse's 9 (CCVCCVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
chèvres
9 ch
chevreuse

Visual trap between chèvres and chevreuse

A purely visual mix-up. chèvres (\ʃɛvʁ\) and chevreuse (\ʃə.vʁøz\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50768, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chèvres is recorded at frequency rank #13,540, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʃɛvʁ\. chevreuse is at rank #37,228, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʃə.vʁøz\.

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 50768, this pair ranks #160,138 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of chèvres vs chevreuse

Shared letters: cehrsv. Private to "chèvres": è. Private to "chevreuse": u.

"chèvres" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC  ·  "chevreuse" · 9 letters · shape CCVCCVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chevreuse ← cchevreuse · cehvreuse · cherveuse · cheveruse · chevresue · chevreues · chevreusse · chevrreuse

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "chèvres" for "chevreuse" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ʃɛvʁ\ versus \ʃə.vʁøz\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "chèvres" or "chevreuse"?
"chèvres" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,540 in our French list, against #37,228 for "chevreuse". 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 "chèvres" and "chevreuse" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "chèvres" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "chevreuse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #160,138 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chèvres" and "chevreuse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chevreuil vs chevreuse". 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 #160,138 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