Which to use
“banale” and “banals” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #13,516
- “banale” frequency rank
- #48,936
- “banals” frequency rank
- 62452
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | banale | banals |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin singulier de banal. | Masculin pluriel de banal (commun, très employé). |
Same sound, different letters: banale vs banals
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. banale (CVCVCV) and banals (CVCVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Same sound, different spelling - banale / banals
This is the hard kind. banale 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 a single letter - e in “banale” becomes s in “banals”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62452, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
banale is recorded at frequency rank #13,516, 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 62452, this pair ranks #87,050 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of banale vs banals
Shared letters: abln. Private to "banale": e. Private to "banals": s.
"banale" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "banals" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "banale" and "banals" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "banale" or "banals" show up more?
After this comparison
You've separated the homophone pair "banale" / "banals". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "banale" 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 #87,050 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "banale" 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 #87,050 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.