époquevsévolueWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: époque is a noun, évolue is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“époque” is a noun and “évolue” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#487
“époque” frequency rank
#6,155
“évolue” frequency rank
6642
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature époque évolue
Definition Moment de l’histoire qui ordinairement est marqué par quelque événement considérable. Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de évoluer.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set époque and évolue apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
époque
6 ch
évolue

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: époque is \e.pɔk\ while évolue is \e.vɔ.ly\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6642, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

époque is recorded at frequency rank #487, classified as anoun, pronounced \e.pɔk\. évolue is at rank #6,155, tagged as averb, pronounced \e.vɔ.ly\.

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 6642, this pair ranks #425,657 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of époque vs évolue

Shared letters: eoué. Private to "époque": pq. Private to "évolue": lv.

"époque" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVV  ·  "évolue" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVV

Frequency comparison

époque#487
évolue#6,155

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "époque" and "évolue" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "époque" is a noun and "évolue" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "époque" or "évolue"?
"époque" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #487 in our French list, against #6,155 for "évolue". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering époque vs évolue

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “époque”; for a verb, it's “évolue”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “époque” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list