indiquevsindiquentTell them apart

Quick tell: indique is a adjective, indiquent is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“indique” is an adjective and “indiquent” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,772
“indique” frequency rank
#6,306
“indiquent” frequency rank
8078
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature indique indiquent
Definition Qualifie les composés acides de l’indium et de l’oxygène. Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de indiquer.

Same sound, different letters: indique vs indiquent

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. indique runs 7 letters (VCCVCVV) against indiquent's 9 (VCCVCVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
indique
9 ch
indiquent

Same sound, different spelling - indique / indiquent

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: indique and indiquent carry the same recorded pronunciation, \ɛ̃.dik\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “indique” sits inside “indiquent”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8078, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

indique is recorded at frequency rank #1,772, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.dik\. indiquent is at rank #6,306, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɛ̃.dik\.

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 8078, this pair ranks #421,214 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of indique vs indiquent

Shared letters: deinqu. Private to "indique": -. Private to "indiquent": t.

"indique" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVV  ·  "indiquent" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • indique ← idnique · inddique · indiqeu · indiqque · indiuqe · indqiue · inidque · inndique
  • indiquent ← idniquent · inddiquent · indiqeunt · indiqquent · indiquennt · indiquentt · indiquetn · indiqunet

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "indique" and "indiquent" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "indique" is an adjective and "indiquent" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "indique" vs "indiquent" - which ranks higher?
"indique" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,772 in our French list, against #6,306 for "indiquent". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "indique" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "indiquent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #421,214 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "indique" and "indiquent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "indignent vs indiquent". 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 #421,214 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