chèquesvsconquesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#10,841
“chèques” frequency rank
#44,390
“conques” frequency rank
55231
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chèques conques
Definition Pluriel de chèque. Pluriel de conque.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set chèques and conques apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

7 ch
chèques
7 ch
conques

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. chèques (\ʃɛk\) and conques (\kɔ̃k\) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55231, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chèques is recorded at frequency rank #10,841, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʃɛk\. conques is at rank #44,390, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔ̃k\.

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 55231, this pair ranks #128,800 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of chèques vs conques

Shared letters: ceqsu. Private to "chèques": . Private to "conques": no.

"chèques" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVVC  ·  "conques" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • conquescconques · cnoques · connques · conqeus · conqques · conquess · conquse · conuqes

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "chèques" and "conques" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ʃɛk\ versus \kɔ̃k\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "chèques" or "conques"?
"chèques" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,841 in our French list, against #44,390 for "conques". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list