claquesvscraqueWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#21,570
“claques” frequency rank
#14,897
“craque” frequency rank
36467
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature claques craque
Definition Pluriel de claque. Mensonge.

Where the eye mixes claques and craque

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. claques runs 7 letters (CCVCVVC) against craque's 6 (CCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
claques
6 ch
craque

Why the eye confuses claques with craque

A purely visual mix-up. claques (\klak\) and craque (\kʁak\) 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 36467, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

claques is recorded at frequency rank #21,570, classified as anoun, pronounced \klak\. craque is at rank #14,897, tagged as anoun, 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 36467, this pair ranks #269,388 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of claques vs craque

Shared letters: acequ. Private to "claques": ls. Private to "craque": r.

"claques" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVVC  ·  "craque" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • claques ← calques · cclaques · claqeus · claqques · claquess · claquse · clauqes · cllaques
  • craque ← carque · ccraque · craqeu · craqque · crauqe · crqaue · crraque · rcaque

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "claques" and "craque" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\klak\ versus \kʁak\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "claques" or "craque"?
"craque" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,897 in our French list, against #21,570 for "claques". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "claques" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "craque" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #269,388 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "claques" and "craque" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "claquée vs claques". 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 #269,388 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