chievschildWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: chie is a verb, child is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“chie” is a verb and “child” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#16,089
“chie” frequency rank
#23,798
“child” frequency rank
39887
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chie child
Definition Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent du verbe chier. Enfant (fils ou fille). Note d’usage : Utilisé généralement dans une construction possessive.

Where the eye mixes chie and child

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
chie
5 ch
child

Why the eye confuses chie with child

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: chie is \ʃi\ while child is \ˈtʃaɪld\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39887, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chie is recorded at frequency rank #16,089, classified as averb, pronounced \ʃi\. child is at rank #23,798, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈtʃaɪld\.

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 39887, this pair ranks #244,605 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of chie vs child

Shared letters: chi. Private to "chie": e. Private to "child": dl.

"chie" · 4 letters · shape CCVV  ·  "child" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chiecchie · chei · chhie · cihe · hcie
  • childcchild · chhild · chidl · childd · chilld · chlid · cihld · hcild

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "chie" and "child" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "chie" is a verb and "child" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "chie" vs "child" - which ranks higher?
"chie" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,089 in our French list, against #23,798 for "child". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "chie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "child" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #244,605 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chie" and "child" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "child vs chino". 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 #244,605 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