bancvsbinWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: banc is a noun, bin is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“banc” is a noun and “bin” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#4,468
“banc” frequency rank
#10,119
“bin” frequency rank
14587
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature banc bin
Definition Long siège permettant d’accueillir plus d’une personne. Variante de bien.

Where the eye mixes banc and bin

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

4 ch
banc
3 ch
bin

Visual trap between banc and bin

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: banc is \bɑ̃\ while bin is \bɛ̃\. 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 adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14587, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

banc is recorded at frequency rank #4,468, classified as anoun, pronounced \bɑ̃\. bin is at rank #10,119, tagged as anadv, pronounced \bɛ̃\.

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 14587, this pair ranks #396,027 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of banc vs bin

Shared letters: bn. Private to "banc": ac. Private to "bin": i.

"banc" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "bin" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bancabnc · bacn · bancc · bannc · bbanc · bnac

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "banc" for "bin" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "banc" is a noun and "bin" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "banc" vs "bin" - which ranks higher?
"banc" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,468 in our French list, against #10,119 for "bin". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "banc" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bin" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #396,027 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "banc" and "bin" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ber vs bin". 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 #396,027 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