alanvsamaWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“alan” and “ama” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#6,778
“alan” frequency rank
#24,098
“ama” frequency rank
30876
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature alan ama
Definition Gros chien de la race des dogues, propre à chasser le sanglier. Langue Left-May parlée en Nouvelle-Guinée dans le Sepik oriental.

Where the eye mixes alan and ama

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
alan
3 ch
ama

Look-alike desk: alan vs ama

A purely visual mix-up. alan (\a.lɑ̃\) and ama (\a.ma\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30876, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

alan is recorded at frequency rank #6,778, classified as anoun, pronounced \a.lɑ̃\. ama is at rank #24,098, tagged as anoun, pronounced \a.ma\.

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 30876, this pair ranks #307,437 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of alan vs ama

Shared letters: a. Private to "alan": ln. Private to "ama": m.

"alan" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "ama" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • alanaaln · alann · alna · laan

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "alan" and "ama" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\a.lɑ̃\ versus \a.ma\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "alan" or "ama"?
"alan" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,778 in our French list, against #24,098 for "ama". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "alan" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ama" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #307,437 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "alan" and "ama" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ama vs aur". 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 #307,437 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