chezvschumWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: chez is a preposition, chum is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“chez” is a preposition and “chum” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#129
“chez” frequency rank
#18,959
“chum” frequency rank
19088
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chez chum
Definition Dans la maison de, au logis de ; associé au lieu de résidence ou d'activité d'une personne. Ami (sans idée d’amour).

Where the eye mixes chez and chum

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
chez
4 ch
chum

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: chez is \ʃe\ while chum is \tʃɔm\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (preposition vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19088, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chez is recorded at frequency rank #129, classified as aprep, pronounced \ʃe\. chum is at rank #18,959, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tʃɔm\.

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 19088, this pair ranks #375,076 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of chez vs chum

Shared letters: ch. Private to "chez": ez. Private to "chum": mu.

"chez" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "chum" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chezcchez · cehz · chezz · chhez · chze · hcez
  • chumcchum · chhum · chmu · chumm · cuhm · hcum

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "chez" and "chum" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "chez" is a preposition and "chum" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "chez" or "chum"?
"chez" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #129 in our French list, against #18,959 for "chum". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "chez" and "chum". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "chez" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "chum" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #375,076 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chez" and "chum" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chah vs chum". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list