anhvsarchWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#41,117
“anh” frequency rank
#25,204
“arch” frequency rank
66321
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature anh arch
Definition Grand frère. Dans les pays arabes, terre en usufruit collectif chez les peuples Berbères.

Where the eye mixes anh and arch

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. anh runs 3 letters (VCC) against arch's 4 (VCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
anh
4 ch
arch

Look-alike desk: anh vs arch

A purely visual mix-up. anh (\aɲ˦\) and arch (\aʁʃ\) 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 66321, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

anh is recorded at frequency rank #41,117, classified as anoun, pronounced \aɲ˦\. arch is at rank #25,204, tagged as anoun, pronounced \aʁʃ\.

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 66321, this pair ranks #68,338 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of anh vs arch

Shared letters: ah. Private to "anh": n. Private to "arch": cr.

"anh" · 3 letters · shape VCC  ·  "arch" · 4 letters · shape VCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • arch ← acrh · arcch · archh · arhc · arrch · rach

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "anh" for "arch" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\aɲ˦\ versus \aʁʃ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "anh" or "arch" show up more?
"arch" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,204 in our French list, against #41,117 for "anh". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "anh" and "arch" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "anh" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "arch" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #68,338 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "anh" and "arch" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "anh 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 #68,338 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