bagnevsBahnWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#28,066
“bagne” frequency rank
#43,795
“Bahn” frequency rank
71861
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bagne Bahn
Definition Lieu de travaux forcés ; lieu où l’on tenait les forçats à la chaîne, où l’on renfermait les forçats après le travail. Artère, veine, nervure.

Where the eye mixes bagne and Bahn

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. bagne runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against Bahn's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
bagne
4 ch
Bahn

Look-alike desk: bagne vs Bahn

A purely visual mix-up. bagne (\baɲ\) and Bahn (\baːn\) 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 71861, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bagne is recorded at frequency rank #28,066, classified as anoun, pronounced \baɲ\. Bahn is at rank #43,795, tagged as anoun, pronounced \baːn\.

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 71861, this pair ranks #46,016 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of bagne vs Bahn

Shared letters: abn. Private to "bagne": eg. Private to "Bahn": h.

"bagne" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "Bahn" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bagne ← abgne · bagen · baggne · bagnne · bange · bbagne · bgane
  • Bahn ← abhn · bahhn · bahnn · banh · bbahn · bhan

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "bagne" and "Bahn" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\baɲ\ versus \baːn\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "bagne" or "Bahn"?
"bagne" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,066 in our French list, against #43,795 for "Bahn". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "bagne" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Bahn" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #46,016 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bagne" and "Bahn" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Bahn vs bihan". 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 #46,016 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