che vs chess, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#11,600
“che” frequency rank: #49,866
“chess” frequency rank: 61466
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

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

Letter map: che vs chess

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

3 ch

che

5 ch

chess

Grammar separator: che vs chess

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: che is anintj and chessanoun. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “che” sits inside “chess”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61466, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

che is recorded at frequency rank #11,600, classified as anintj. chess is at rank #49,866, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈtʃɛs/.

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 61466, this pair ranks #7,129 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of che vs chess

Shared letters: ceh. Private to "che": -. Private to "chess": s.

"che" · 3 letters · shape CCV · "chess" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

chess ← cchess · cehss · ches · chhess · chses · hcess

Frequently Asked Questions

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

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

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

"che" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,600 in our Portuguese list, against #49,866 for "chess". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

Full dictionary entry for "che" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "chess" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #7,129 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"che" and "chess" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chassi 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 #7,129 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.