Which to use
“que” is a conjunction and “queer” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #13
- “que” frequency rank
- #29,497
- “queer” frequency rank
- 29510
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | que | queer |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Complémenteur pour introduire une proposition subordonnée complétive. | Se dit d’une personne dont l’identité de genre, l’expression de genre, la sexualité ou l’orientation sexuelle ne se conforme pas aux normes hétérosexuelles et cisgenres dominantes. |
Where the eye mixes que and queer
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between que and queer
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: que is \kə\ while queer is \kwiʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “que” sits inside “queer”, and the parts of speech differ too (conjunction vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29510, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
que is recorded at frequency rank #13, classified as aconj, pronounced \kə\. queer is at rank #29,497, tagged as anadj, pronounced \kwiʁ\.
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 29510, this pair ranks #316,212 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of que vs queer
Shared letters: equ. Private to "que": -. Private to "queer": r.
"que" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "queer" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- queer ← qeuer · qqueer · queerr · quer · quere · uqeer
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "que" for "queer" ever safe?
Which is more common, "que" or "queer"?
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 "que" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "queer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #316,212 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "que" and "queer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "queer vs ques". 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 #316,212 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.