pâquevspiquésWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: pâque is a noun, piqués is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#31,666
“pâque” frequency rank
#48,104
“piqués” frequency rank
79770
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pâque piqués
Definition Variante orthographique de Pâque. Masculin pluriel de piqué.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set pâque and piqués apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
pâque
6 ch
piqués

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pâque is \pɑk\ while piqués is \pi.ke\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 79770, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pâque is recorded at frequency rank #31,666, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɑk\. piqués is at rank #48,104, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pi.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 79770, this pair ranks #22,539 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pâque vs piqués

Shared letters: pqu. Private to "pâque": . Private to "piqués": isé.

"pâque" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "piqués" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC

Frequency comparison

pâque#31,666
piqués#48,104

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pâque" and "piqués" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pâque" is a noun and "piqués" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "pâque" or "piqués"?
"pâque" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,666 in our French list, against #48,104 for "piqués". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering pâque vs piqués

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “pâque”; for an adjective, it's “piqués”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “pâque” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list