[Tyrannosaurs]

Chips and French fries aren't quite the same - it's a dolphins and porpoises thing. French fries would commonly be regarded as chips, but chips aren't necessarily fries.

Broadly speaking when we say chips we're referring to any hot bits of fried potato (so not cold fried potatoes referred to as chips in the US which we call crisps). Traditionally they'd be larger than French fries (maybe 1cm square and about the same length) but usually not as crispy. That's the way they're normally still served if you buy fish and chips. Sometimes they're even made from cutting up potatoes (rather than mashing and extruding them).

With the growth in popularity of McDonalds and the like in the 80s, French fries caught on. Most people would still call these chips but they're obviously different so if you want to be precise you'd use fries.

There are also larger chips (the traditional size or larger) that are fried until crispy confusing the whole matter further. These might (or might not) be referred to as chunky chips depending on where you are.