provoquentvsprovoquerTell them apart

Which to use

“provoquent” and “provoquer” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#12,842
“provoquent” frequency rank
#4,366
“provoquer” frequency rank
17208
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature provoquent provoquer
Definition Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de provoquer. Inciter, exciter.

Where the eye mixes provoquent and provoquer

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. provoquent runs 10 letters (CCVCVCVVCC) against provoquer's 9 (CCVCVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

10 ch
provoquent
9 ch
provoquer

Why the eye confuses provoquent with provoquer

A purely visual mix-up. provoquent (\pʁɔ.vɔk\) and provoquer (\pʁɔ.vɔ.ke\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17208, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

provoquent is recorded at frequency rank #12,842, classified as averb, pronounced \pʁɔ.vɔk\. provoquer is at rank #4,366, tagged as averb, 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 17208, this pair ranks #384,274 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of provoquent vs provoquer

Shared letters: eopqruv. Private to "provoquent": nt. Private to "provoquer": -.

"provoquent" · 10 letters · shape CCVCVCVVCC  ·  "provoquer" · 9 letters · shape CCVCVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • provoquent ← porvoquent · pprovoquent · proovquent · provoqeunt · provoqquent · provoquennt · provoquentt · provoquetn
  • provoquer ← porvoquer · pprovoquer · proovquer · provoqeur · provoqquer · provoquerr · provoqure · provouqer

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "provoquent" and "provoquer" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\pʁɔ.vɔk\ versus \pʁɔ.vɔ.ke\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "provoquent" or "provoquer"?
"provoquer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,366 in our French list, against #12,842 for "provoquent". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "provoquent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "provoquer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #384,274 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "provoquent" and "provoquer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "provoc vs provoquent". 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 #384,274 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