ce vs che, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“ce” is a pronoun and “che” is an intj - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,311
“ce” frequency rank: #11,600
“che” frequency rank: 14911
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	ce	che
Definition	o que	para expressar desprezo ou que se duvida da verdade do que se esta a ouvir

Letter map: ce vs che

Shared letters muted; letters that set ce and che apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

2 ch

3 ch

che

Role in the sentence - ce and che

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ce is apronoun and cheanintj. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14911, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ce is recorded at frequency rank #3,311, classified as apron, pronounced /t͡ʃe/. che is at rank #11,600, tagged as anintj.

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 14911, this pair ranks #57,063 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ce vs che

Shared letters: ce. Private to "ce": -. Private to "che": h.

"ce" · 2 letters · shape CV · "che" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ce" and "che" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ce" is a pronoun and "che" an intj, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

In ordinary Portuguese text, does "ce" or "che" show up more?

"ce" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,311 in our Portuguese list, against #11,600 for "che". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "ce" vs "che" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

Full dictionary entry for "ce" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "che" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #57,063 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"ce" and "che" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "che vs chess". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #57,063 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.