Which to use
“expliquer” and “expliques” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,112
- “expliquer” frequency rank
- #20,441
- “expliques” frequency rank
- 21553
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | expliquer | expliques |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Rendre clair ; faire comprendre. | Deuxième personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif du verbe expliquer. |
Where the eye mixes expliquer and expliques
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between expliquer and expliques
A purely visual mix-up. expliquer (\ɛks.pli.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 differ by a single letter - r in “expliquer” becomes s in “expliques”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21553, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
expliquer is recorded at frequency rank #1,112, classified as averb, pronounced \ɛks.pli.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 21553, this pair ranks #362,568 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of expliquer vs expliques
Shared letters: eilpqux. Private to "expliquer": r. Private to "expliques": s.
"expliquer" · 9 letters · shape VCCCVCVVC · "expliques" · 9 letters · shape VCCCVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "expliquer" and "expliques" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "expliquer" or "expliques" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "expliquer" 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 #362,568 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "expliquer" 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 #362,568 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.