expliquavsexpliquaisWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#30,598
“expliqua” frequency rank
#42,867
“expliquais” frequency rank
73465
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature expliqua expliquais
Definition Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de expliquer. Première personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de expliquer.

Where the eye mixes expliqua and expliquais

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence.

8 ch
expliqua
10 ch
expliquais

Look-alike desk: expliqua vs expliquais

A purely visual mix-up. expliqua (\ɛk.spli.ka\) and expliquais (\ɛk.spli.kɛ\) 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 extra letter(s) - “expliqua” sits inside “expliquais”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 73465, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

expliqua is recorded at frequency rank #30,598, classified as averb, pronounced \ɛk.spli.ka\. expliquais is at rank #42,867, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɛk.spli.kɛ\.

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 73465, this pair ranks #40,372 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of expliqua vs expliquais

Shared letters: aeilpqux. Private to "expliqua": -. Private to "expliquais": s.

"expliqua" · 8 letters · shape VCCCVCVV  ·  "expliquais" · 10 letters · shape VCCCVCVVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • expliquaepxliqua · exlpiqua · expilqua · expliqau · expliqqua · expliuqa · explliqua · explqiua
  • expliquaisepxliquais · exlpiquais · expilquais · expliqauis · expliqquais · expliquaiss · expliquasi · expliquias

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "expliqua" and "expliquais" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ɛk.spli.ka\ versus \ɛk.spli.kɛ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "expliqua" or "expliquais" show up more?
"expliqua" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,598 in our French list, against #42,867 for "expliquais". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "expliqua" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "expliquais" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #40,372 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "expliqua" and "expliquais" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "expliquaient vs expliquais". 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 #40,372 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