expliquaisvsexpliquesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#42,867
“expliquais” frequency rank
#20,441
“expliques” frequency rank
63308
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature expliquais expliques
Definition Première personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de expliquer. Deuxième personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif du verbe expliquer.

Where the eye mixes expliquais and expliques

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

10 ch
expliquais
9 ch
expliques

Look-alike desk: expliquais vs expliques

A purely visual mix-up. expliquais (\ɛk.spli.kɛ\) and expliques (\ɛks.plik\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63308, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

expliquais is recorded at frequency rank #42,867, classified as averb, pronounced \ɛk.spli.kɛ\. expliques is at rank #20,441, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɛks.plik\.

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 63308, this pair ranks #82,621 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of expliquais vs expliques

Shared letters: eilpqsux. Private to "expliquais": a. Private to "expliques": -.

"expliquais" · 10 letters · shape VCCCVCVVVC  ·  "expliques" · 9 letters · shape VCCCVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • expliquaisepxliquais · exlpiquais · expilquais · expliqauis · expliqquais · expliquaiss · expliquasi · expliquias
  • expliquesepxliques · exlpiques · expilques · expliqeus · expliqques · expliquess · expliquse · expliuqes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "expliquais" for "expliques" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ɛk.spli.kɛ\ versus \ɛks.plik\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "expliquais" or "expliques" show up more?
"expliques" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,441 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.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "expliquais" and "expliques" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "expliquais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "expliques" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #82,621 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "expliquais" and "expliques" 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 #82,621 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