banquevsbarquesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#1,134
“banque” frequency rank
#33,137
“barques” frequency rank
34271
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature banque barques
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 barque.

Where the eye mixes banque and barques

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
banque
7 ch
barques

Look-alike desk: banque vs barques

A purely visual mix-up. banque (\bɑ̃k\) and barques (\baʁk\) 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 34271, 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\. barques is at rank #33,137, tagged as anoun, pronounced \baʁk\.

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 34271, this pair ranks #284,989 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of banque vs barques

Shared letters: abequ. Private to "banque": n. Private to "barques": rs.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • banqueabnque · bannque · banqeu · banqque · banuqe · baqnue · bbanque · bnaque
  • barquesabrques · baqrues · barqeus · barqques · barquess · barquse · barrques · baruqes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "banque" for "barques" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\bɑ̃k\ versus \baʁk\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "banque" or "barques"?
"banque" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,134 in our French list, against #33,137 for "barques". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "banque" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "barques" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #284,989 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "banque" and "barques" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "barges vs barques". 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 #284,989 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