Which to use
“expliqua” and “explique” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #30,598
- “expliqua” frequency rank
- #941
- “explique” frequency rank
- 31539
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | expliqua | explique |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de expliquer. | Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent du verbe expliquer. |
Where the eye mixes expliqua and explique
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between expliqua and explique
A purely visual mix-up. expliqua (\ɛk.spli.ka\) and explique (\ɛk.splik\) 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 a single letter - a in “expliqua” becomes e in “explique”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31539, 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\. explique is at rank #941, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɛk.splik\.
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 31539, this pair ranks #303,157 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of expliqua vs explique
Shared letters: eilpqux. Private to "expliqua": a. Private to "explique": -.
"expliqua" · 8 letters · shape VCCCVCVV · "explique" · 8 letters · shape VCCCVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "expliqua" and "explique" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "expliqua" or "explique" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "expliqua" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "explique" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #303,157 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "expliqua" and "explique" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "expliqua 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 #303,157 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.