attaquavsattaquerTell them apart

Which to use

“attaqua” and “attaquer” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#33,129
“attaqua” frequency rank
#2,703
“attaquer” frequency rank
35832
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature attaqua attaquer
Definition Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple du verbe attaquer. Assaillir par agression.

Where the eye mixes attaqua and attaquer

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

7 ch
attaqua
8 ch
attaquer

Visual trap between attaqua and attaquer

A purely visual mix-up. attaqua (\a.ta.ka\) and attaquer (\a.ta.ke\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35832, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

attaqua is recorded at frequency rank #33,129, classified as averb, pronounced \a.ta.ka\. attaquer is at rank #2,703, tagged as averb, pronounced \a.ta.ke\.

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 35832, this pair ranks #273,932 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of attaqua vs attaquer

Shared letters: aqtu. Private to "attaqua": -. Private to "attaquer": er.

"attaqua" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVV  ·  "attaquer" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • attaquaataqua · atatqua · attaqau · attaqqua · attauqa · attqaua · tataqua
  • attaquerataquer · atatquer · attaqeur · attaqquer · attaquerr · attaqure · attauqer · attqauer

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "attaqua" for "attaquer" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\a.ta.ka\ versus \a.ta.ke\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "attaqua" or "attaquer"?
"attaquer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,703 in our French list, against #33,129 for "attaqua". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "attaqua" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "attaquer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #273,932 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "attaqua" and "attaquer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "attaqua vs attaquez". 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 #273,932 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list