expliquéevsexpliquentWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#20,716
“expliquée” frequency rank
#7,183
“expliquent” frequency rank
27899
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature expliquée expliquent
Definition Participe passé féminin singulier de expliquer. Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de expliquer.

Where the eye mixes expliquée and expliquent

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

9 ch
expliquée
10 ch
expliquent

Look-alike desk: expliquée vs expliquent

A purely visual mix-up. expliquée (\ɛk.spli.ke\) and expliquent (\ɛk.splik\) 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 27899, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

expliquée is recorded at frequency rank #20,716, classified as averb, pronounced \ɛk.spli.ke\. expliquent is at rank #7,183, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɛk.splik\.

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 27899, this pair ranks #326,069 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of expliquée vs expliquent

Shared letters: eilpqux. Private to "expliquée": é. Private to "expliquent": nt.

"expliquée" · 9 letters · shape VCCCVCVVV  ·  "expliquent" · 10 letters · shape VCCCVCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • expliquentepxliquent · exlpiquent · expilquent · expliqeunt · expliqquent · expliquennt · expliquentt · expliquetn

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "expliquée" and "expliquent" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ɛk.spli.ke\ versus \ɛk.splik\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "expliquée" or "expliquent"?
"expliquent" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,183 in our French list, against #20,716 for "expliquée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "expliquée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "expliquent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #326,069 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "expliquée" and "expliquent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "expliquée 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 #326,069 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