critiquéevscritiquéesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#17,399
“critiquée” frequency rank
#41,724
“critiquées” frequency rank
59123
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature critiquée critiquées
Definition Participe passé féminin singulier de critiquer. Participe passé féminin pluriel de critiquer.

Same sound, different letters: critiquée vs critiquées

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 9 letters. critiquée runs 9 letters (CCVCVCVVV) against critiquées's 10 (CCVCVCVVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
critiquée
10 ch
critiquées

Same sound, different spelling - critiquée / critiquées

This is the hard kind. critiquée and critiquées are pronounced identically (\kʁi.ti.ke\) and both work as averb. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “critiquée” sits inside “critiquées”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59123, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

critiquée is recorded at frequency rank #17,399, classified as averb, pronounced \kʁi.ti.ke\. critiquées is at rank #41,724, tagged as averb, pronounced \kʁi.ti.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 59123, this pair ranks #104,936 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of critiquée vs critiquées

Shared letters: ceiqrtué. Private to "critiquée": -. Private to "critiquées": s.

"critiquée" · 9 letters · shape CCVCVCVVV  ·  "critiquées" · 10 letters · shape CCVCVCVVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "critiquée" for "critiquées" ever safe?
No. They are pronounced the same (\kʁi.ti.ke\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Which is more common, "critiquée" or "critiquées"?
"critiquée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,399 in our French list, against #41,724 for "critiquées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've separated the homophone pair "critiquée" / "critiquées". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "critiquée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "critiquées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #104,936 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "critiquée" and "critiquées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "critiquées vs critiqués". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #104,936 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