publiésvspubliquesWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#4,177
“publiés” frequency rank
#1,784
“publiques” frequency rank
5961
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature publiés publiques
Definition Participe passé masculin pluriel de publier. Féminin pluriel de public.

Where the eye mixes publiés and publiques

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. publiés runs 7 letters (CVCCVVC) against publiques's 9 (CVCCVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
publiés
9 ch
publiques

Look-alike desk: publiés vs publiques

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: publiés is \py.bli.je\ while publiques is \py.blik\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5961, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

publiés is recorded at frequency rank #4,177, classified as averb, pronounced \py.bli.je\. publiques is at rank #1,784, tagged as anadj, pronounced \py.blik\.

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 5961, this pair ranks #427,571 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of publiés vs publiques

Shared letters: bilpsu. Private to "publiés": é. Private to "publiques": eq.

"publiés" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC  ·  "publiques" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • publiques ← pbuliques · ppubliques · pubbliques · pubilques · publiqeus · publiqques · publiquess · publiquse

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "publiés" for "publiques" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "publiés" is a verb and "publiques" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "publiés" or "publiques"?
"publiques" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,784 in our French list, against #4,177 for "publiés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "publiés" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "publiques" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #427,571 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "publiés" and "publiques" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pubis vs publiés". 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 #427,571 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