Which to use
“banal” and “banals” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #9,962
- “banal” frequency rank
- #48,936
- “banals” frequency rank
- 58898
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | banal | banals |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui appartient à un seigneur, et dont les paysans se servent en échange d’une redevance. | Masculin pluriel de banal (commun, très employé). |
Same sound, different letters: banal vs banals
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. banal runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against banals's 6 (CVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Homophone desk: banal vs banals
This is the hard kind. banal and banals are pronounced identically (\ba.nal\) and both work as anadjective. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “banal” sits inside “banals”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58898, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
banal is recorded at frequency rank #9,962, classified as anadj, pronounced \ba.nal\. banals is at rank #48,936, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ba.nal\.
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 58898, this pair ranks #106,254 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of banal vs banals
Shared letters: abln. Private to "banal": -. Private to "banals": s.
"banal" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "banals" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "banal" and "banals" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "banal" vs "banals" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "banal" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "banals" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #106,254 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "banal" and "banals" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "banals vs banyuls". 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 #106,254 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.