expliquevsexpliquéesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#941
“explique” frequency rank
#33,254
“expliquées” frequency rank
34195
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature explique expliquées
Definition Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent du verbe expliquer. Participe passé féminin pluriel de expliquer.

Where the eye mixes explique and expliquées

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

8 ch
explique
10 ch
expliquées

Visual trap between explique and expliquées

A purely visual mix-up. explique (\ɛk.splik\) and expliquées (\ɛk.spli.ke\) 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 34195, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

explique is recorded at frequency rank #941, classified as averb, pronounced \ɛk.splik\. expliquées is at rank #33,254, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɛk.spli.ke\.

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 34195, this pair ranks #285,504 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of explique vs expliquées

Shared letters: eilpqux. Private to "explique": -. Private to "expliquées": .

"explique" · 8 letters · shape VCCCVCVV  ·  "expliquées" · 10 letters · shape VCCCVCVVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • expliqueepxlique · exlpique · expilque · expliqeu · expliqque · expliuqe · expllique · explqiue

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "explique" for "expliquées" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ɛk.splik\ versus \ɛk.spli.ke\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "explique" vs "expliquées" - which ranks higher?
"explique" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #941 in our French list, against #33,254 for "expliquées". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "explique" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "expliquées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #285,504 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "explique" and "expliquées" 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 #285,504 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