risquévsrisquentWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: risqué is a adjective, risquent is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“risqué” is an adjective and “risquent” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#8,031
“risqué” frequency rank
#7,622
“risquent” frequency rank
15653
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature risqué risquent
Definition Qui présente un risque certain. Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de risquer.

Letter map: risqué vs risquent

Shared letters muted; letters that set risqué and risquent apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.

6 ch
risqué
8 ch
risquent

Role in the sentence - risqué and risquent

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: risqué is anadjective and risquentaverb. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15653, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

risqué is recorded at frequency rank #8,031, classified as anadj. risquent is at rank #7,622, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁisk\.

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 15653, this pair ranks #391,438 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of risqué vs risquent

Shared letters: iqrsu. Private to "risqué": é. Private to "risquent": ent.

"risqué" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "risquent" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • risquentirsquent · riqsuent · risqeunt · risqquent · risquennt · risquentt · risquetn · risqunet

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "risqué" for "risquent" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "risqué" is an adjective and "risquent" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "risqué" or "risquent" show up more?
"risquent" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,622 in our French list, against #8,031 for "risqué". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "risqué" and "risquent".

  • Full dictionary entry for "risqué" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "risquent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #391,438 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "risqué" and "risquent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rescue vs risqué". 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 #391,438 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