calquer
French, verb/kal.ke/
calquer is spelled C-A-L-Q-U-E-R (7 letters) and appears about once in every 4 million words in written French, the 62,144th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Calquer is a French verb meaning “to model, to imitate, to copy” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Relever par transparence, ou en suivant le relief d'une gravure, les traits d’un dessin en suivant exactement…”.
What does calquer mean in English?
verb
- 1
to model, to imitate, to copy
- 2
to trace, to copy onto a sheet of paper superimposed over the original, by drawing over its lines
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
verb: 1. Relever par transparence, ou en suivant le relief d'une gravure, les traits d’un dessin en suivant exactement ses contours avec une pointe, une plume ou un crayon. 2. Imiter avec une exactitude servile. 3. Emprunter comme un calque par traduire littéralement.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of calquer
- avoir + past participle infinitive multiword-construction
- calquant gerund participle present
- ayant + past participle gerund multiword-construction participle
- calqué participle past
- calque first-person indicative present
- calques indicative present second-person
- calquons first-person indicative plural
- calquez indicative plural present
- calquent indicative plural present
- calquais first-person imperfect indicative
- calquait imperfect indicative singular
- calquions first-person imperfect indicative
- calquiez imperfect indicative plural
- calquaient imperfect indicative plural
- calquai first-person historic indicative
- calquas historic indicative past
- calqua historic indicative past
- calquâmes first-person historic indicative
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce calquer?
- /kal.ke/
- \kal.ke\
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to calquer
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is calquer in French?
calquer appears about once in every 4 million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).