qui
\ki\
The verdict
“qui” is in the everyday core of French, ranked #22 in French word frequency and used as a pronoun.
- #22
- frequency rank, French
- 3
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Lequel, laquelle, lesquels, lesquelles.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | qui |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Pronoun |
| IPA | \ki\ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #22 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “qui” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for qui is 3 letters long, classified as a pronoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \ki\. Corpus data places it at rank #22 in overall French word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
qui has no tracked misspelling variants, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "quoi", "quid", "quil", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is qui, spelled Q-U-I.
Definition
- 1Lequel, laquelle, lesquels, lesquelles.
- 2Celui qui, celle qui.
- 3Ce qui, en parlant des choses.
- 4Celui-ci ; celle-ci ; ceux-ci… celui-là ; celle-là ; ceux-là ; les uns… les autres.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “qui”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is Q-U-I - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \ki\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “quoi” - see the side-by-side comparison. qui vs quoi
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.