Which to use
“que” is a conjunction and “quoi” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #13
- “que” frequency rank
- #123
- “quoi” frequency rank
- 136
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | que | quoi |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Complémenteur pour introduire une proposition subordonnée complétive. | Quelle chose, dans la fonction d’objet. |
Where the eye mixes que and quoi
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between que and quoi
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: que is \kə\ while quoi is \kwa\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (conjunction vs pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 136, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
que is recorded at frequency rank #13, classified as aconj, pronounced \kə\. quoi is at rank #123, tagged as apron, pronounced \kwa\.
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 136, this pair ranks #440,065 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of que vs quoi
Shared letters: qu. Private to "que": e. Private to "quoi": io.
"que" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "quoi" · 4 letters · shape CVVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- quoi ← qoui · qquoi · quio · uqoi
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "que" and "quoi" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "que" or "quoi" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "que" and "quoi" 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 "quoi" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #440,065 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "que" and "quoi" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "que vs quite". 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 #440,065 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.