techniquevstechniquesTell them apart

Quick tell: technique is a noun, techniques is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“technique” is a noun and “techniques” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#857
“technique” frequency rank
#1,579
“techniques” frequency rank
2436
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature technique techniques
Definition Manière d’accomplir une tâche qui n’est pas immédiatement évidente. Pluriel de technique.

Same sound, different letters: technique vs techniques

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 9 letters.

9 ch
technique
10 ch
techniques

Homophone desk: technique vs techniques

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: technique and techniques carry the same recorded pronunciation, \tɛk.nik\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “technique” sits inside “techniques”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2436, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

technique is recorded at frequency rank #857, classified as anoun, pronounced \tɛk.nik\. techniques is at rank #1,579, tagged as anadj, pronounced \tɛk.nik\.

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 2436, this pair ranks #436,149 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of technique vs techniques

Shared letters: cehinqtu. Private to "technique": -. Private to "techniques": s.

"technique" · 9 letters · shape CVCCCVCVV  ·  "techniques" · 10 letters · shape CVCCCVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • techniqueetchnique · tcehnique · tecchnique · techhnique · techinque · techniqeu · techniqque · techniuqe
  • techniquesetchniques · tcehniques · tecchniques · techhniques · techinques · techniqeus · techniqques · techniquess

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "technique" for "techniques" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "technique" is a noun and "techniques" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "technique" or "techniques"?
"technique" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #857 in our French list, against #1,579 for "techniques". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

"technique" and "techniques" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "technique" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "techniques" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #436,149 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "technique" and "techniques" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "techniques vs tectoniques". 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 #436,149 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