chosevschosesTell them apart

Which to use

“chose” and “choses” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#158
“chose” frequency rank
#278
“choses” frequency rank
436
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chose choses
Definition 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. Pluriel de chose.

Same sound, different letters: chose vs choses

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters.

5 ch
chose
6 ch
choses

Ear matches; page differs - chose and choses

This is the hard kind. chose and choses are pronounced identically (\ʃoz\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “chose” sits inside “choses”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 436, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chose is recorded at frequency rank #158, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʃoz\. choses is at rank #278, 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 436, this pair ranks #439,645 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of chose vs choses

Shared letters: cehos. Private to "chose": -. Private to "choses": -.

"chose" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "choses" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chosecchose · chhose · choes · chosse · chsoe · cohse · hcose
  • chosescchoses · chhoses · choess · chosess · chosses · chsoes · cohses · hcoses

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "chose" for "choses" ever safe?
No. They are pronounced the same (\ʃoz\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
In ordinary French text, does "chose" or "choses" show up more?
"chose" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #158 in our French list, against #278 for "choses". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

"chose" and "choses" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "chose" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "choses" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #439,645 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chose" and "choses" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "choses vs crosses". 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 #439,645 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