provoquervsprovoquésWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#4,366
“provoquer” frequency rank
#22,381
“provoqués” frequency rank
26747
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature provoquer provoqués
Definition Inciter, exciter. Masculin pluriel de provoqué.

Same sound, different letters: provoquer vs provoqués

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. provoquer and provoqués follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCVCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

9 ch
provoquer
9 ch
provoqués

Homophone desk: provoquer vs provoqués

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: provoquer 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 share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26747, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

provoquer is recorded at frequency rank #4,366, 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 26747, this pair ranks #333,090 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of provoquer vs provoqués

Shared letters: opqruv. Private to "provoquer": e. Private to "provoqués": sé.

"provoquer" · 9 letters · shape CCVCVCVVC  ·  "provoqués" · 9 letters · shape CCVCVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • provoquer ← porvoquer · pprovoquer · proovquer · provoqeur · provoqquer · provoquerr · provoqure · provouqer

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "provoquer" and "provoqués" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "provoquer" is a verb and "provoqués" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "provoquer" or "provoqués" show up more?
"provoquer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,366 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.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "provoquer" 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 #333,090 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "provoquer" and "provoqués" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "provoquera vs provoqués". 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 #333,090 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