banvsbusanWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#6,466
“ban” frequency rank
#47,197
“busan” frequency rank
53663
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ban busan
Definition Proclamation pour ordonner ou défendre quelque chose. Le fouet.

Where the eye mixes ban and busan

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

3 ch
ban
5 ch
busan

Visual trap between ban and busan

A purely visual mix-up. ban (\bɑ̃\) and busan (\bùsan\) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53663, 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\. busan is at rank #47,197, tagged as anoun, pronounced \bùsan\.

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 53663, this pair ranks #139,238 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ban vs busan

Shared letters: abn. Private to "ban": -. Private to "busan": su.

"ban" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "busan" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • busanbbusan · bsuan · buasn · busann · busna · bussan · ubsan

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ban" and "busan" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\bɑ̃\ versus \bùsan\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "ban" vs "busan" - which ranks higher?
"ban" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,466 in our French list, against #47,197 for "busan". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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 "busan" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #139,238 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ban" and "busan" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bihan vs busan". 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 #139,238 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