Chauffeur vs Shoffer

Chauffeur: The Correct Spelling

The word chauffeur is not easy to spell in the world, many spell it shoffer, shofer, shoufer, or shoffar, others go for chofer, chaufur or chauffar. The words shoffer and chauffeur are the same when it comes to pronunciation although the correct spellings are chauffeur.

Understanding Misspellings

The search engines are smart enough to understand someone using the word shofer is actually looking for a chauffeur. All are the same no matter how you spell it.

How to Spell Chauffeur

It is an interesting fact that people type the misspelled word ‘shofer’ twice as the times than the original spelled word ‘chauffeur’.

Female Chauffeur

Chauffeuse: A chauffeuse is a woman who has the job of a chauffeur.

Where the Word Chauffeur Comes From

Early Automotive History

The term chauffeur has its roots in early motoring. Way back then, trains and early cars were steam powered. A fire was lit under a large water tank, the water would boil and the steam was captured. When the steam was released into pistons connected to the wheels, the train or car moved.

The Stoker

To achieve enough steam you would have to stoke or keep loading the fire with more coal, so the job of stoker was born. As many of the early steam cars were invented in France, the French in turn needed a lot of stokers. The French word for stoker is chauffeur!

Chauffeur Duties

Early chauffeurs (shofer) not only stoked the fires, but maintained and drove the cars.

So no matter how you spell the word chauffeur it’s all the same to us.