quaisvsquartTell them apart

Which to use

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

#10,217
“quais” frequency rank
#2,733
“quart” frequency rank
12950
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature quais quart
Definition Pluriel de quai. Partie d’une unité subdivisée en quatre parties égales. 1/4.

Where the eye mixes quais and quart

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
quais
5 ch
quart

Why the eye confuses quais with quart

A purely visual mix-up. quais (\ke\) and quart (\kaʁ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12950, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

quais is recorded at frequency rank #10,217, classified as anoun, pronounced \ke\. quart is at rank #2,733, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kaʁ\.

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 12950, this pair ranks #403,063 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of quais vs quart

Shared letters: aqu. Private to "quais": is. Private to "quart": rt.

"quais" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC  ·  "quart" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • quaisqauis · qquais · quaiss · quias · uqais
  • quartqaurt · qquart · quarrt · quartt · quatr · qurat · uqart

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "quais" and "quart" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ke\ versus \kaʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "quais" vs "quart" - which ranks higher?
"quart" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,733 in our French list, against #10,217 for "quais". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "quais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "quart" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #403,063 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "quais" and "quart" 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 #403,063 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