turcvsturqueWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: turc is a adjective, turque is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#5,936
“turc” frequency rank
#8,051
“turque” frequency rank
13987
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature turc turque
Definition Relatif aux Turcs, à la Turquie. Brebis de plus d'un an, mais qui n'a pas encore eu d'agneau.

Same sound, different letters: turc vs turque

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 3 letters. turc runs 4 letters (CVCC) against turque's 6 (CVCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
turc
6 ch
turque

Homophone desk: turc vs turque

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: turc and turque carry the same recorded pronunciation, \tyʁk\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other anoun, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13987, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

turc is recorded at frequency rank #5,936, classified as anadj, pronounced \tyʁk\. turque is at rank #8,051, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tyʁk\.

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 13987, this pair ranks #398,691 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of turc vs turque

Shared letters: rtu. Private to "turc": c. Private to "turque": eq.

"turc" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "turque" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • turctturc · tucr · turcc · turrc · utrc
  • turquetruque · tturque · tuqrue · turqeu · turqque · turrque · turuqe · utrque

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "turc" for "turque" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "turc" is an adjective and "turque" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "turc" or "turque" show up more?
"turc" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,936 in our French list, against #8,051 for "turque". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "turc" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "turque" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #398,691 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "turc" and "turque" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "turc vs turf". 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 #398,691 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