Which to use
“enquêter” is a verb and “enquêtes” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #9,995
- “enquêter” frequency rank
- #4,937
- “enquêtes” frequency rank
- 14932
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | enquêter | enquêtes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Faire une enquête. | Pluriel de enquête. |
Where the eye mixes enquêter and enquêtes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. enquêter and enquêtes follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: enquêter vs enquêtes
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: enquêter is \ɑ̃.ke.te\ while enquêtes is \ɑ̃.kɛt\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - r in “enquêter” becomes s in “enquêtes”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14932, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
enquêter is recorded at frequency rank #9,995, classified as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.ke.te\. enquêtes is at rank #4,937, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɑ̃.kɛt\.
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 14932, this pair ranks #394,603 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of enquêter vs enquêtes
Shared letters: enqtuê. Private to "enquêter": r. Private to "enquêtes": s.
"enquêter" · 8 letters · shape VCCVVCVC · "enquêtes" · 8 letters · shape VCCVVCVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "enquêter" for "enquêtes" ever safe?
Frequency check: "enquêter" vs "enquêtes" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "enquêter" and "enquêtes" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "enquêter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "enquêtes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #394,603 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "enquêter" and "enquêtes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "enquérir vs enquêter". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #394,603 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.