expliquentvsexpliquesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#7,183
“expliquent” frequency rank
#20,441
“expliques” frequency rank
27624
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature expliquent expliques
Definition Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de expliquer. Deuxième personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif du verbe expliquer.

Same sound, different letters: expliquent vs expliques

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters.

10 ch
expliquent
9 ch
expliques

Ear matches; page differs - expliquent and expliques

This is the hard kind. expliquent 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27624, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

expliquent is recorded at frequency rank #7,183, 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 27624, this pair ranks #327,856 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of expliquent vs expliques

Shared letters: eilpqux. Private to "expliquent": nt. Private to "expliques": s.

"expliquent" · 10 letters · shape VCCCVCVVCC  ·  "expliques" · 9 letters · shape VCCCVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • expliquentepxliquent · exlpiquent · expilquent · expliqeunt · expliqquent · expliquennt · expliquentt · expliquetn
  • expliquesepxliques · exlpiques · expilques · expliqeus · expliqques · expliquess · expliquse · expliuqes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "expliquent" for "expliques" ever safe?
No. They are pronounced the same (\ɛk.splik\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Which is more common, "expliquent" or "expliques"?
"expliquent" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,183 in our French list, against #20,441 for "expliques". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "expliquent" 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 #327,856 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "expliquent" 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 #327,856 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