Which to use
“explique” and “expliques” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #941
- “explique” frequency rank
- #20,441
- “expliques” frequency rank
- 21382
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | explique | expliques |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent du verbe expliquer. | Deuxième personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif du verbe expliquer. |
Same sound, different letters: explique vs expliques
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters.
Same sound, different spelling - explique / expliques
This is the hard kind. explique and expliques are pronounced identically (\ɛk.splik\) 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 1 extra letter(s) - “explique” sits inside “expliques”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21382, 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\. 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 21382, this pair ranks #363,444 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of explique vs expliques
Shared letters: eilpqux. Private to "explique": -. Private to "expliques": s.
"explique" · 8 letters · shape VCCCVCVV · "expliques" · 9 letters · shape VCCCVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "explique" and "expliques" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "explique" vs "expliques" - which ranks higher?
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 "explique" 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 #363,444 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "explique" and "expliques" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "expliquais vs expliques". 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 #363,444 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.