chave vs che, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#1,329
“chave” frequency rank: #11,600
“che” frequency rank: 12929
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	chave	che
Definition	objeto usado para abrir e fechar uma fechadura, algemas ou cadeado	para expressar desprezo ou que se duvida da verdade do que se esta a ouvir

Letter map: chave vs che

Shared letters muted; letters that set chave and che apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch

chave

3 ch

che

Part-of-speech tell for chave / che

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: chave is anoun and cheanintj. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12929, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chave is recorded at frequency rank #1,329, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈʃa.vɨ/. 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 12929, this pair ranks #59,536 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of chave vs che

Shared letters: ceh. Private to "chave": av. Private to "che": -.

"chave" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "che" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Known mistypes of this pair

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "chave" for "che" ever safe?

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

Which is more common, "chave" or "che"?

"chave" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,329 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.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "chave" and "che".

Full dictionary entry for "chave" 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 #59,536 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"chave" and "che" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "che vs chess". 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 #59,536 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.