risquéevsrisquerWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#24,368
“risquée” frequency rank
#8,300
“risquer” frequency rank
32668
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature risquée risquer
Definition Féminin singulier de risqué. Hasarder, exposer à un danger possible, à une chance douteuse.

Same sound, different letters: risquée vs risquer

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters.

7 ch
risquée
7 ch
risquer

Same sound, different spelling - risquée / risquer

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: risquée and risquer carry the same recorded pronunciation, \ʁis.ke\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32668, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

risquée is recorded at frequency rank #24,368, classified as anadj, pronounced \ʁis.ke\. 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 32668, this pair ranks #295,760 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of risquée vs risquer

Shared letters: eiqrsu. Private to "risquée": é. Private to "risquer": -.

"risquée" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVV  ·  "risquer" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "risquée" for "risquer" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "risquée" is an adjective and "risquer" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "risquée" or "risquer"?
"risquer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,300 in our French list, against #24,368 for "risquée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've separated the homophone pair "risquée" / "risquer". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "risquée" 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 #295,760 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "risquée" and "risquer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "risquée vs risquées". 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 #295,760 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