choquevschoseConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#7,667
“choque” frequency rank
#158
“chose” frequency rank
7825
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature choque chose
Definition Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de choquer. Objet, idée ou abstraction quelconque, sans pouvoir, vouloir, ou devoir l’identifier ou la nommer. Note d’usage : La signification du mot chose se déduit par la manière dont on l’emploie dans la phrase, où il remplace ce qu’il n’est pas possible (ou pas souhaitable) de nommer. Peut aussi remplacer un ensemble d’objets inanimés (ou d’idées) qu’on devine par le contexte.

Where the eye mixes choque and chose

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
choque
5 ch
chose

Why the eye confuses choque with chose

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: choque is \ʃɔk\ while chose is \ʃoz\. 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 7825, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

choque is recorded at frequency rank #7,667, classified as averb, pronounced \ʃɔk\. chose is at rank #158, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʃoz\.

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 7825, this pair ranks #422,014 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of choque vs chose

Shared letters: ceho. Private to "choque": qu. Private to "chose": s.

"choque" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVV  ·  "chose" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • choquecchoque · chhoque · choqeu · choqque · chouqe · chqoue · cohque · hcoque
  • chosecchose · chhose · choes · chosse · chsoe · cohse · hcose

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "choque" and "chose" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "choque" is a verb and "chose" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "choque" or "chose"?
"chose" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #158 in our French list, against #7,667 for "choque". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "choque" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "chose" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #422,014 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "choque" and "chose" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "choque vs choquent". 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 #422,014 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