chalévschaveTell them apart

Which to use

“chalé” and “chave” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#23,246
“chalé” frequency rank
#1,329
“chave” frequency rank
24575
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chalé chave
Definition casa campestre de madeira ao estilo alpino, normalmente em região montanhosa, cujo telhado apresenta forte caimento e beirais avançados objeto usado para abrir e fechar uma fechadura, algemas ou cadeado

Where the eye mixes chalé and chave

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. chalé and chave follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
chalé
5 ch
chave

Why the eye confuses chalé with chave

A purely visual mix-up. chalé (/ʃa.ˈlɛ/) and chave (/ˈʃa.vɨ/) 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 24575, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chalé is recorded at frequency rank #23,246, classified as anoun, pronounced /ʃa.ˈlɛ/. chave is at rank #1,329, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈʃa.vɨ/.

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 24575, this pair ranks #44,998 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of chalé vs chave

Shared letters: ach. Private to "chalé": lé. Private to "chave": ev.

"chalé" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "chave" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chave ← cahve · cchave · chaev · chavve · chhave · chvae · hcave

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "chalé" and "chave" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ʃa.ˈlɛ/ versus /ˈʃa.vɨ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "chalé" or "chave" show up more?
"chave" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,329 in our Portuguese list, against #23,246 for "chalé". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "chalé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "chave" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #44,998 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chalé" and "chave" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chalé vs chau". 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 #44,998 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list