exigevsexigéesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#4,858
“exige” frequency rank
#29,768
“exigées” frequency rank
34626
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature exige exigées
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de exiger. Participe passé féminin pluriel de exiger.

Where the eye mixes exige and exigées

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

5 ch
exige
7 ch
exigées

Why the eye confuses exige with exigées

A purely visual mix-up. exige (\ɛɡ.ziʒ\) and exigées (\ɛɡ.zi.ʒe\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34626, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

exige is recorded at frequency rank #4,858, classified as averb, pronounced \ɛɡ.ziʒ\. exigées is at rank #29,768, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɛɡ.zi.ʒe\.

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 34626, this pair ranks #282,503 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of exige vs exigées

Shared letters: egix. Private to "exige": -. Private to "exigées": .

"exige" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV  ·  "exigées" · 7 letters · shape VCVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • exigeeixge · exgie · exieg · exigge · exxige · xeige

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "exige" and "exigées" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ɛɡ.ziʒ\ versus \ɛɡ.zi.ʒe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "exige" vs "exigées" - which ranks higher?
"exige" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,858 in our French list, against #29,768 for "exigées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "exige" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "exigées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #282,503 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "exige" and "exigées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "exigées vs exigez". 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 #282,503 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