Which to use
“quai” and “quais” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #4,609
- “quai” frequency rank
- #10,217
- “quais” frequency rank
- 14826
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | quai | quais |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Levée ordinairement revêtue de pierres de taille et faite le long d’une rivière ou d’un canal, pour rendre le chemin praticable et pour empêcher le débordement de l’eau. | Pluriel de quai. |
Where the eye mixes quai and quais
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses quai with quais
A purely visual mix-up. quai (\kɛ\) and quais (\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 extra letter(s) - “quai” sits inside “quais”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14826, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
quai is recorded at frequency rank #4,609, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɛ\. quais is at rank #10,217, tagged as anoun, pronounced \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 14826, this pair ranks #395,052 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of quai vs quais
Shared letters: aiqu. Private to "quai": -. Private to "quais": s.
"quai" · 4 letters · shape CVVV · "quais" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "quai" and "quais" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "quai" vs "quais" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "quai" and "quais" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "quai" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "quais" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #395,052 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "quai" and "quais" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "quais vs qualif". 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 #395,052 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.