choisirvschoisisWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: choisir is a verb, choisis is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“choisir” is a verb and “choisis” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,322
“choisir” frequency rank
#3,741
“choisis” frequency rank
5063
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature choisir choisis
Definition Faire un choix ; prendre une personne ou une chose de préférence à une autre ou à plusieurs autres. Masculin pluriel de choisi.

Where the eye mixes choisir and choisis

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. choisir and choisis follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
choisir
7 ch
choisis

Visual trap between choisir and choisis

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: choisir is \ʃwa.ziʁ\ while choisis is \ʃwa.zi\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - r in “choisir” becomes s in “choisis”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5063, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

choisir is recorded at frequency rank #1,322, classified as averb, pronounced \ʃwa.ziʁ\. choisis is at rank #3,741, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ʃwa.zi\.

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 5063, this pair ranks #430,010 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of choisir vs choisis

Shared letters: chios. Private to "choisir": r. Private to "choisis": -.

"choisir" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC  ·  "choisis" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • choisir ← cchoisir · chhoisir · chiosir · choiisr · choisirr · choisri · choissir · chosiir
  • choisis ← cchoisis · chhoisis · chiosis · choiiss · choisiss · choissis · chosiis · cohisis

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "choisir" for "choisis" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "choisir" is a verb and "choisis" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "choisir" or "choisis"?
"choisir" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,322 in our French list, against #3,741 for "choisis". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "choisir" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "choisis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #430,010 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "choisir" and "choisis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "choisir vs choisirai". 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 #430,010 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