risquévsrisquerTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#8,031
“risqué” frequency rank
#8,300
“risquer” frequency rank
16331
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature risqué risquer
Definition Qui présente un risque certain. Hasarder, exposer à un danger possible, à une chance douteuse.

Letter map: risqué vs risquer

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

6 ch
risqué
7 ch
risquer

Role in the sentence - risqué and risquer

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: risqué is anadjective and risqueraverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16331, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

risqué is recorded at frequency rank #8,031, classified as anadj. risquer is at rank #8,300, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁis.ke\.

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 16331, this pair ranks #388,312 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of risqué vs risquer

Shared letters: iqrsu. Private to "risqué": é. Private to "risquer": e.

"risqué" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "risquer" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • risquerirsquer · riqsuer · risqeur · risqquer · risquerr · risqure · rissquer · risuqer

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "risqué" for "risquer" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "risqué" is an adjective and "risquer" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "risqué" or "risquer"?
"risqué" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,031 in our French list, against #8,300 for "risquer". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "risqué" and "risquer". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "risqué" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "risquer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #388,312 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "risqué" and "risquer" 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 #388,312 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