chosesvscloserTell them apart

Which to use

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

#278
“choses” frequency rank
#24,907
“closer” frequency rank
25185
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature choses closer
Definition Pluriel de chose. Finisseur.

Where the eye mixes choses and closer

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

6 ch
choses
6 ch
closer

Look-alike desk: choses vs closer

A purely visual mix-up. choses (\ʃoz\) and closer (\klo.zœʁ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25185, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

choses is recorded at frequency rank #278, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʃoz\. closer is at rank #24,907, tagged as anoun, pronounced \klo.zœʁ\.

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 25185, this pair ranks #342,309 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of choses vs closer

Shared letters: ceos. Private to "choses": h. Private to "closer": lr.

"choses" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "closer" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chosescchoses · chhoses · choess · chosess · chosses · chsoes · cohses · hcoses
  • closerccloser · clloser · cloesr · closerr · closre · closser · clsoer · colser

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "choses" for "closer" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ʃoz\ versus \klo.zœʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "choses" vs "closer" - which ranks higher?
"choses" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #278 in our French list, against #24,907 for "closer". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "choses" and "closer" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "choses" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "closer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #342,309 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "choses" and "closer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "closer vs clouer". 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 #342,309 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