Which to use
“communiqué” is a noun and “communiquer” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #3,524
- “communiqué” frequency rank
- #3,988
- “communiquer” frequency rank
- 7512
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | communiqué | communiquer |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Message à la presse. | Rendre commun à, faire part de, transmettre. |
Same sound, different letters: communiqué vs communiquer
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 9 letters. communiqué runs 10 letters (CVCCVCVCVV) against communiquer's 11 (CVCCVCVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Same sound, different spelling - communiqué / communiquer
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: communiqué and communiquer carry the same recorded pronunciation, \kɔ.my.ni.ke\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7512, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
communiqué is recorded at frequency rank #3,524, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔ.my.ni.ke\. communiquer is at rank #3,988, tagged as averb, pronounced \kɔ.my.ni.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 7512, this pair ranks #422,945 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of communiqué vs communiquer
Shared letters: cimnoqu. Private to "communiqué": é. Private to "communiquer": er.
"communiqué" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCVCVV · "communiquer" · 11 letters · shape CVCCVCVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- communiquer ← ccommuniquer · cmomuniquer · commnuiquer · commuinquer · communiqeur · communiqquer · communiquerr · communiqure
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "communiqué" for "communiquer" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "communiqué" or "communiquer" show up more?
What to do next
"communiqué" and "communiquer" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "communiqué" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "communiquer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #422,945 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "communiqué" and "communiquer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "communier vs communiquer". 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 #422,945 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.