Which to use
“quelque” and “quelques” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #230
- “quelque” frequency rank
- #142
- “quelques” frequency rank
- 372
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | quelque | quelques |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Un parmi d’autres. | Pluriel de l’adjectif indéfini quelque. Un petit nombre de. — Note d’usage : Ce mot peut s’utiliser comme un numéral après un cardinal et et. |
Same sound, different letters: quelque vs quelques
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters.
Homophone desk: quelque vs quelques
This is the hard kind. quelque and quelques are pronounced identically (\kɛlk\) and both work as anadjective. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “quelque” sits inside “quelques”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 372, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
quelque is recorded at frequency rank #230, classified as anadj, pronounced \kɛlk\. quelques is at rank #142, tagged as anadj, pronounced \kɛlk\.
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 372, this pair ranks #439,742 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of quelque vs quelques
Shared letters: elqu. Private to "quelque": -. Private to "quelques": s.
"quelque" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVV · "quelques" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "quelque" and "quelques" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "quelque" vs "quelques" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
You've separated the homophone pair "quelque" / "quelques". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "quelque" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "quelques" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #439,742 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "quelque" and "quelques" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "quelques vs queues". 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 #439,742 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.