expliquaientvsexpliquaisWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#43,422
“expliquaient” frequency rank
#42,867
“expliquais” frequency rank
86289
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature expliquaient expliquais
Definition Troisième personne du pluriel de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de expliquer. Première personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de expliquer.

Same sound, different letters: expliquaient vs expliquais

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 9 letters.

12 ch
expliquaient
10 ch
expliquais

Ear matches; page differs - expliquaient and expliquais

This is the hard kind. expliquaient and expliquais are pronounced identically (\ɛk.spli.kɛ\) and both work as averb. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 86289, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

expliquaient is recorded at frequency rank #43,422, classified as averb, pronounced \ɛk.spli.kɛ\. 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 86289, this pair ranks #9,944 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of expliquaient vs expliquais

Shared letters: aeilpqux. Private to "expliquaient": nt. Private to "expliquais": s.

"expliquaient" · 12 letters · shape VCCCVCVVVVCC  ·  "expliquais" · 10 letters · shape VCCCVCVVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • expliquaientepxliquaient · exlpiquaient · expilquaient · expliqauient · expliqquaient · expliquaeint · expliquaiennt · expliquaientt
  • expliquaisepxliquais · exlpiquais · expilquais · expliqauis · expliqquais · expliquaiss · expliquasi · expliquias

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "expliquaient" for "expliquais" ever safe?
No. They are pronounced the same (\ɛk.spli.kɛ\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
In ordinary French text, does "expliquaient" or "expliquais" show up more?
"expliquais" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #42,867 in our French list, against #43,422 for "expliquaient". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "expliquaient" 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 #9,944 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "expliquaient" and "expliquais" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "expliquais vs expliquées". 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 #9,944 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