quaisvsquasiWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#10,217
“quais” frequency rank
#2,332
“quasi” frequency rank
12549
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature quais quasi
Definition Pluriel de quai. Morceau de la cuisse d’un bœuf ou d’un veau, placé sous le gîte à la noix.

Where the eye mixes quais and quasi

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
quais
5 ch
quasi

Look-alike desk: quais vs quasi

A purely visual mix-up. quais (\ke\) and quasi (\ka.zi\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ only by swapping two adjacent letters (is ↔ si) - a transposition the eye reads straight past. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12549, 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\. quasi is at rank #2,332, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ka.zi\.

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 12549, this pair ranks #404,781 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of quais vs quasi

Shared letters: aiqsu. Private to "quais": -. Private to "quasi": -.

"quais" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC  ·  "quasi" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • quaisqauis · qquais · quaiss · quias · uqais
  • quasiqausi · qquasi · quassi · qusai · uqasi

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "quais" and "quasi" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ke\ versus \ka.zi\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "quais" or "quasi" show up more?
"quasi" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,332 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.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "quais" and "quasi" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "quais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "quasi" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #404,781 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "quais" and "quasi" 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 #404,781 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