banvsBramTell them apart

Quick tell: ban is a noun, Bram is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ban” is a noun and “Bram” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#6,466
“ban” frequency rank
#46,618
“Bram” frequency rank
53084
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ban Bram
Definition Proclamation pour ordonner ou défendre quelque chose. Commune française, située dans le département de l’Aude.

Where the eye mixes ban and Bram

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

3 ch
ban
4 ch
Bram

Look-alike desk: ban vs Bram

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ban is \bɑ̃\ while Bram is \bʁɑm\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53084, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ban is recorded at frequency rank #6,466, classified as anoun, pronounced \bɑ̃\. Bram is at rank #46,618, tagged as aname, pronounced \bʁɑm\.

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 53084, this pair ranks #143,180 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ban vs Bram

Shared letters: ab. Private to "ban": n. Private to "Bram": mr.

"ban" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "Bram" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Brambarm · bbram · bramm · brma · brram · rbam

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ban" and "Bram" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ban" is a noun and "Bram" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "ban" or "Bram" show up more?
"ban" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,466 in our French list, against #46,618 for "Bram". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "ban" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Bram" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #143,180 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ban" and "Bram" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Bram vs bread". 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 #143,180 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