Which to use
“chie” is a verb and “clé” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #16,089
- “chie” frequency rank
- #1,987
- “clé” frequency rank
- 18076
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | chie | clé |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent du verbe chier. | Instrument de métal que l’on introduit dans une serrure pour ouvrir ou fermer un accès. Ancienne clé à panneton que l'on place et fait tourner dans la serrure d'une porte, d'un coffre, etc. |
Where the eye mixes chie and clé
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.
Look-alike desk: chie vs clé
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: chie is \ʃi\ while clé is \kle\. 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 18076, 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\. clé is at rank #1,987, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kle\.
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 18076, this pair ranks #380,120 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of chie vs clé
Shared letters: c. Private to "chie": ehi. Private to "clé": lé.
"chie" · 4 letters · shape CCVV · "clé" · 3 letters · shape CCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- chie ← cchie · chei · chhie · cihe · hcie
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "chie" and "clé" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "chie" or "clé" show up more?
What to do next
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 "clé" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #380,120 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "chie" and "clé" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "CCE vs chie". 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 #380,120 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.