provoquévsprovoquésTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#5,909
“provoqué” frequency rank
#22,381
“provoqués” frequency rank
28290
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature provoqué provoqués
Definition Participe passé masculin singulier du verbe provoquer. Masculin pluriel de provoqué.

Same sound, different letters: provoqué vs provoqués

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

8 ch
provoqué
9 ch
provoqués

Ear matches; page differs - provoqué and provoqués

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: provoqué and provoqués 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 1 extra letter(s) - “provoqué” sits inside “provoqués”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28290, 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\. provoqués is at rank #22,381, 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 28290, this pair ranks #323,744 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of provoqué vs provoqués

Shared letters: opqruvé. Private to "provoqué": -. Private to "provoqués": s.

"provoqué" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCVV  ·  "provoqués" · 9 letters · shape CCVCVCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "provoqué" for "provoqués" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "provoqué" is a verb and "provoqués" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "provoqué" or "provoqués"?
"provoqué" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,909 in our French list, against #22,381 for "provoqués". 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" / "provoqués". 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 "provoqués" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #323,744 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "provoqué" and "provoqués" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "provoquera vs provoqués". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #323,744 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