Which to use
“cliquer” is a verb and “cliques” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #10,471
- “cliquer” frequency rank
- #28,486
- “cliques” frequency rank
- 38957
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cliquer | cliques |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Enfoncer et relâcher le bouton-poussoir (ou cliquet) d’une souris ou d’un dispositif similaire. | Nom par lequel on désignait des sabots de bois dans certaines provinces. |
Where the eye mixes cliquer and cliques
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. cliquer and cliques follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses cliquer with cliques
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cliquer is \kli.ke\ while cliques is \klik\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - r in “cliquer” becomes s in “cliques”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38957, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cliquer is recorded at frequency rank #10,471, classified as averb, pronounced \kli.ke\. cliques is at rank #28,486, tagged as anoun, pronounced \klik\.
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 38957, this pair ranks #251,592 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of cliquer vs cliques
Shared letters: ceilqu. Private to "cliquer": r. Private to "cliques": s.
"cliquer" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVVC · "cliques" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "cliquer" and "cliques" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "cliquer" or "cliques" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "cliquer" and "cliques" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "cliquer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cliques" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #251,592 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cliquer" and "cliques" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "claquée vs cliques". 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 #251,592 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.