banquevsbanquesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#1,134
“banque” frequency rank
#2,659
“banques” frequency rank
3793
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature banque banques
Definition Commerce de l'argent et du crédit qui consiste à recevoir des capitaux en compte courant avec ou sans intérêt ; à échanger des effets ou à les escompter avec des espèces, à des taux et moyennant des commissions variables ; à exécuter pour le compte de tiers toutes opérations de ce genre et à se charger de tous services financiers ; à créer et à émettre des lettres de change ; d’une façon générale, commercer de l’argent, ainsi que des titres et valeurs. Pluriel de banque.

Same sound, different letters: banque vs banques

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters.

6 ch
banque
7 ch
banques

Same sound, different spelling - banque / banques

This is the hard kind. banque and banques are pronounced identically (\bɑ̃k\) and both work as anoun. 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) - “banque” sits inside “banques”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3793, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

banque is recorded at frequency rank #1,134, classified as anoun, pronounced \bɑ̃k\. banques is at rank #2,659, tagged as anoun, pronounced \bɑ̃k\.

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 3793, this pair ranks #433,179 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of banque vs banques

Shared letters: abenqu. Private to "banque": -. Private to "banques": s.

"banque" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "banques" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • banqueabnque · bannque · banqeu · banqque · banuqe · baqnue · bbanque · bnaque
  • banquesabnques · bannques · banqeus · banqques · banquess · banquse · banuqes · baqnues

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "banque" and "banques" be used interchangeably?
No. They are pronounced the same (\bɑ̃k\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "banque" vs "banques" - which ranks higher?
"banque" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,134 in our French list, against #2,659 for "banques". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

"banque" and "banques" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "banque" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "banques" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #433,179 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "banque" and "banques" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "banques 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 #433,179 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