Which to use
“alan” and “an” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #6,778
- “alan” frequency rank
- #363
- “an” frequency rank
- 7141
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | alan | an |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Gros chien de la race des dogues, propre à chasser le sanglier. | Temps que met la Terre à accomplir une révolution autour du Soleil et qui se divise en douze mois. Année (voir Notes plus bas). |
Where the eye mixes alan and an
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses alan with an
A purely visual mix-up. alan (\a.lɑ̃\) and an (\ɑ̃\) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “an” sits inside “alan”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7141, 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\. an is at rank #363, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɑ̃\.
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 7141, this pair ranks #424,099 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of alan vs an
Shared letters: an. Private to "alan": l. Private to "an": -.
"alan" · 4 letters · shape VCVC · "an" · 2 letters · shape VC
Known mistypes of this pair
- alan ← aaln · alann · alna · laan
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "alan" for "an" ever safe?
Frequency check: "alan" vs "an" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "alan" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "an" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #424,099 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "alan" and "an" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Ahn vs alan". 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 #424,099 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.