Which to use
“exprès” and “expresse” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,345
- “exprès” frequency rank
- #21,010
- “expresse” frequency rank
- 26355
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | exprès | expresse |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui est énoncé d’une manière formelle et impérative. | Féminin singulier de exprès. |
Same sound, different letters: exprès vs expresse
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. exprès runs 6 letters (VCCCVC) against expresse's 8 (VCCCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Ear matches; page differs - exprès and expresse
This is the hard kind. exprès and expresse are pronounced identically (\ɛk.spʁɛs\) and both work as anadjective. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26355, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
exprès is recorded at frequency rank #5,345, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɛk.spʁɛs\. expresse is at rank #21,010, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɛk.spʁɛs\.
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 26355, this pair ranks #335,530 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of exprès vs expresse
Shared letters: eprsx. Private to "exprès": è. Private to "expresse": -.
"exprès" · 6 letters · shape VCCCVC · "expresse" · 8 letters · shape VCCCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- expresse ← epxresse · expersse · exppresse · exprese · expreses · exprresse · exprsese · exrpesse
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "exprès" and "expresse" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "exprès" or "expresse" show up more?
Useful next steps
You've separated the homophone pair "exprès" / "expresse". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "exprès" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "expresse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #335,530 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "exprès" and "expresse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "espresso vs expresse". 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 #335,530 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.