Which to use
“banda” and “bans” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #42,177
- “banda” frequency rank
- #36,719
- “bans” frequency rank
- 78896
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | banda | bans |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Bande de jeunes. | Pluriel de ban. |
Where the eye mixes banda and bans
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. banda runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against bans's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses banda with bans
A purely visual mix-up. banda (\bɑ̃.da\) and bans (\bɑ̃\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 78896, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
banda is recorded at frequency rank #42,177, classified as anoun, pronounced \bɑ̃.da\. bans is at rank #36,719, tagged as anoun, pronounced \bɑ̃\.
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 78896, this pair ranks #24,589 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of banda vs bans
Shared letters: abn. Private to "banda": d. Private to "bans": s.
"banda" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "bans" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "banda" for "bans" ever safe?
Frequency check: "banda" vs "bans" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "banda" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "bans" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #24,589 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "banda" and "bans" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "banda vs bandana". 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 #24,589 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.