expliquevsexpliqueraConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#941
“explique” frequency rank
#23,208
“expliquera” frequency rank
24149
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature explique expliquera
Definition Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent du verbe expliquer. Troisième personne du singulier du futur de expliquer.

Where the eye mixes explique and expliquera

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

8 ch
explique
10 ch
expliquera

Visual trap between explique and expliquera

A purely visual mix-up. explique (\ɛk.splik\) and expliquera (\ɛk.spli.kə.ʁa\) 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) - “explique” sits inside “expliquera”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24149, 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\. expliquera is at rank #23,208, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɛk.spli.kə.ʁa\.

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 24149, this pair ranks #348,289 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of explique vs expliquera

Shared letters: eilpqux. Private to "explique": -. Private to "expliquera": ar.

"explique" · 8 letters · shape VCCCVCVV  ·  "expliquera" · 10 letters · shape VCCCVCVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • expliqueepxlique · exlpique · expilque · expliqeu · expliqque · expliuqe · expllique · explqiue
  • expliqueraepxliquera · exlpiquera · expilquera · expliqeura · expliqquera · expliquear · expliquerra · expliqurea

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "explique" for "expliquera" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ɛk.splik\ versus \ɛk.spli.kə.ʁa\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "explique" vs "expliquera" - which ranks higher?
"explique" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #941 in our French list, against #23,208 for "expliquera". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "explique" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "expliquera" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #348,289 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "explique" and "expliquera" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "expliquées vs expliquera". 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 #348,289 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