Which to use
“claquant” is an adjective and “craquent” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #35,860
- “claquant” frequency rank
- #41,204
- “craquent” frequency rank
- 77064
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | claquant | craquent |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui claque, en parlant d'un bruit. | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de craquer. |
Where the eye mixes claquant and craquent
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. claquant and craquent follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCVVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses claquant with craquent
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: claquant is \kla.kɑ̃\ while craquent is \kʁak\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 77064, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
claquant is recorded at frequency rank #35,860, classified as anadj, pronounced \kla.kɑ̃\. craquent is at rank #41,204, tagged as averb, pronounced \kʁak\.
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 77064, this pair ranks #29,416 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of claquant vs craquent
Shared letters: acnqtu. Private to "claquant": l. Private to "craquent": er.
"claquant" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVVCC · "craquent" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "claquant" for "craquent" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "claquant" or "craquent" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "claquant" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "craquent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #29,416 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "claquant" and "craquent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "craquement vs craquent". 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 #29,416 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.