modiquevsmoquéWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#26,444
“modique” frequency rank
#22,337
“moqué” frequency rank
48781
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature modique moqué
Definition Qui est peu considérable pécuniairement ; de peu de valeur. Participe passé masculin singulier de moquer.

Where the eye mixes modique and moqué

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

7 ch
modique
5 ch
moqué

Visual trap between modique and moqué

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: modique is \mɔ.dik\ while moqué is \mɔ.ke\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48781, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

modique is recorded at frequency rank #26,444, classified as anadj, pronounced \mɔ.dik\. moqué is at rank #22,337, tagged as averb, pronounced \mɔ.ke\.

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 48781, this pair ranks #176,090 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of modique vs moqué

Shared letters: moqu. Private to "modique": dei. Private to "moqué": é.

"modique" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV  ·  "moqué" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • modiquemdoique · mmodique · moddique · modiqeu · modiqque · modiuqe · modqiue · moidque

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "modique" for "moqué" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "modique" is an adjective and "moqué" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "modique" or "moqué"?
"moqué" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,337 in our French list, against #26,444 for "modique". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "modique" and "moqué" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "modique" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "moqué" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #176,090 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "modique" and "moqué" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "moqué vs moquée". 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 #176,090 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