choquervsclaquerWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#14,222
“choquer” frequency rank
#14,881
“claquer” frequency rank
29103
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature choquer claquer
Definition Donner un choc, heurter. Faire un certain bruit aigu et éclatant.

Where the eye mixes choquer and claquer

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
choquer
7 ch
claquer

Visual trap between choquer and claquer

A purely visual mix-up. choquer (\ʃɔ.ke\) and claquer (\kla.ke\) 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 29103, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

choquer is recorded at frequency rank #14,222, classified as averb, pronounced \ʃɔ.ke\. claquer is at rank #14,881, tagged as averb, pronounced \kla.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 29103, this pair ranks #318,731 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of choquer vs claquer

Shared letters: ceqru. Private to "choquer": ho. Private to "claquer": al.

"choquer" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVVC  ·  "claquer" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • choquercchoquer · chhoquer · choqeur · choqquer · choquerr · choqure · chouqer · chqouer
  • claquercalquer · cclaquer · claqeur · claqquer · claquerr · claqure · clauqer · cllaquer

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "choquer" for "claquer" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ʃɔ.ke\ versus \kla.ke\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "choquer" or "claquer" show up more?
"choquer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,222 in our French list, against #14,881 for "claquer". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "choquer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "claquer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #318,731 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "choquer" and "claquer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "claquée vs claquer". 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 #318,731 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