provoquévsprovoquéesWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#5,909
“provoqué” frequency rank
#22,989
“provoquées” frequency rank
28898
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature provoqué provoquées
Definition Participe passé masculin singulier du verbe provoquer. Féminin pluriel de provoqué.

Same sound, different letters: provoqué vs provoquées

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

8 ch
provoqué
10 ch
provoquées

Same sound, different spelling - provoqué / provoquées

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: provoqué and provoquées carry the same recorded pronunciation, \pʁɔ.vɔ.ke\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is averb, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “provoqué” sits inside “provoquées”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28898, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

provoqué is recorded at frequency rank #5,909, classified as averb, pronounced \pʁɔ.vɔ.ke\. provoquées is at rank #22,989, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pʁɔ.vɔ.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 28898, this pair ranks #319,956 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of provoqué vs provoquées

Shared letters: opqruvé. Private to "provoqué": -. Private to "provoquées": es.

"provoqué" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCVV  ·  "provoquées" · 10 letters · shape CCVCVCVVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "provoqué" and "provoquées" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "provoqué" is a verb and "provoquées" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "provoqué" vs "provoquées" - which ranks higher?
"provoqué" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,909 in our French list, against #22,989 for "provoquées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've separated the homophone pair "provoqué" / "provoquées". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "provoqué" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "provoquées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #319,956 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "provoqué" and "provoquées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "provoquées vs provoquera". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #319,956 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