expliquéevsexpliquesConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#20,716
“expliquée” frequency rank
#20,441
“expliques” frequency rank
41157
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature expliquée expliques
Definition Participe passé féminin singulier de expliquer. Deuxième personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif du verbe expliquer.

Where the eye mixes expliquée and expliques

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

9 ch
expliquée
9 ch
expliques

Why the eye confuses expliquée with expliques

A purely visual mix-up. expliquée (\ɛk.spli.ke\) 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 share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41157, 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\. 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 41157, this pair ranks #235,198 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of expliquée vs expliques

Shared letters: eilpqux. Private to "expliquée": é. Private to "expliques": s.

"expliquée" · 9 letters · shape VCCCVCVVV  ·  "expliques" · 9 letters · shape VCCCVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • expliquesepxliques · exlpiques · expilques · expliqeus · expliqques · expliquess · expliquse · expliuqes

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "expliquée" and "expliques" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ɛk.spli.ke\ versus \ɛks.plik\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "expliquée" 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 #20,716 for "expliquée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "expliquée" 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 #235,198 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "expliquée" 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 #235,198 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