loosevsloqueTell them apart

Quick tell: loose is a adjective, loque is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“loose” is an adjective and “loque” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#32,054
“loose” frequency rank
#46,272
“loque” frequency rank
78326
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature loose loque
Definition Lâche (en parlant de vêtements portés). Étoffe réduite en lambeaux par suite de l’usure.

Letter map: loose vs loque

Shared letters muted; letters that set loose and loque apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
loose
5 ch
loque

Part-of-speech tell for loose / loque

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: loose is anadjective and loqueanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 78326, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

loose is recorded at frequency rank #32,054, classified as anadj. loque is at rank #46,272, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lɔk\.

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 78326, this pair ranks #26,061 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of loose vs loque

Shared letters: elo. Private to "loose": s. Private to "loque": qu.

"loose" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "loque" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • looselloose · looes · loosse · losoe · olose
  • loquelloque · loqeu · loqque · louqe · lqoue · olque

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "loose" and "loque" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "loose" is an adjective and "loque" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "loose" or "loque" show up more?
"loose" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,054 in our French list, against #46,272 for "loque". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "loose" and "loque".

  • Full dictionary entry for "loose" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "loque" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #26,061 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "loose" and "loque" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Laroque vs loque". 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 #26,061 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