pratiquentvspratiquesTell them apart

Quick tell: pratiquent is a verb, pratiques is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#11,640
“pratiquent” frequency rank
#1,931
“pratiques” frequency rank
13571
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pratiquent pratiques
Definition Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de pratiquer. Pluriel de pratique.

Same sound, different letters: pratiquent vs pratiques

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. pratiquent runs 10 letters (CCVCVCVVCC) against pratiques's 9 (CCVCVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

10 ch
pratiquent
9 ch
pratiques

Same sound, different spelling - pratiquent / pratiques

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: pratiquent and pratiques carry the same recorded pronunciation, \pʁa.tik\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is averb, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13571, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pratiquent is recorded at frequency rank #11,640, classified as averb, pronounced \pʁa.tik\. pratiques is at rank #1,931, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pʁa.tik\.

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 13571, this pair ranks #400,451 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of pratiquent vs pratiques

Shared letters: aeipqrtu. Private to "pratiquent": n. Private to "pratiques": s.

"pratiquent" · 10 letters · shape CCVCVCVVCC  ·  "pratiques" · 9 letters · shape CCVCVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pratiquentpartiquent · ppratiquent · praitquent · pratiqeunt · pratiqquent · pratiquennt · pratiquentt · pratiquetn
  • pratiquespartiques · ppratiques · praitques · pratiqeus · pratiqques · pratiquess · pratiquse · pratiuqes

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pratiquent" and "pratiques" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pratiquent" is a verb and "pratiques" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "pratiquent" vs "pratiques" - which ranks higher?
"pratiques" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,931 in our French list, against #11,640 for "pratiquent". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "pratiquent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pratiques" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #400,451 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pratiquent" and "pratiques" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pratiquante vs pratiquent". 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 #400,451 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