basiquevsbasquesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#13,739
“basique” frequency rank
#18,661
“basques” frequency rank
32400
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature basique basques
Definition De base, élémentaire, rudimentaire, fondamental. Pluriel de basque.

Where the eye mixes basique and basques

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

7 ch
basique
7 ch
basques

Visual trap between basique and basques

A purely visual mix-up. basique (\ba.zik\) and basques (\bask\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 4 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32400, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

basique is recorded at frequency rank #13,739, classified as anadj, pronounced \ba.zik\. basques is at rank #18,661, tagged as anadj, pronounced \bask\.

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 32400, this pair ranks #297,549 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of basique vs basques

Shared letters: abeqsu. Private to "basique": i. Private to "basques": -.

"basique" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV  ·  "basques" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • basiqueabsique · baisque · basiqeu · basiqque · basiuqe · basqiue · bassique · bbasique
  • basquesabsques · baqsues · basqeus · basqques · basquess · basquse · bassques · basuqes

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "basique" and "basques" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ba.zik\ versus \bask\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "basique" or "basques" show up more?
"basique" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,739 in our French list, against #18,661 for "basques". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "basique" and "basques" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "basique" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "basques" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #297,549 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "basique" and "basques" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "basques vs braqués". 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 #297,549 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