Which to use
“que” is a conjunction and “ques” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #13
- “que” frequency rank
- #37,992
- “ques” frequency rank
- 38005
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | que | ques |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Complémenteur pour introduire une proposition subordonnée complétive. | Deuxième personne du singulier de l’impératif présent de quesen. |
Where the eye mixes que and ques
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses que with ques
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: que is \kə\ while ques is \kveːs\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “que” sits inside “ques”, and the parts of speech differ too (conjunction vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38005, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
que is recorded at frequency rank #13, classified as aconj, pronounced \kə\. ques is at rank #37,992, tagged as averb, pronounced \kveːs\.
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 38005, this pair ranks #258,376 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of que vs ques
Shared letters: equ. Private to "que": -. Private to "ques": s.
"que" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "ques" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- ques ← qeus · qques · quess · quse · uqes
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "que" and "ques" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "que" or "ques"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "que" and "ques" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "que" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "ques" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #258,376 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "que" and "ques" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ques vs quot". 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 #258,376 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.