banquevsbriqueWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#1,134
“banque” frequency rank
#10,832
“brique” frequency rank
11966
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature banque brique
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. Bloc de pierre artificielle fabriqué avec de la terre argileuse pétrie, moulée, séchée, cuite, et dont on se sert comme matériau de construction. Elle peut être pleine, alvéolée ou creuse.

Where the eye mixes banque and brique

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
banque
6 ch
brique

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. banque (\bɑ̃k\) and brique (\bʁik\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11966, 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\. brique is at rank #10,832, tagged as anoun, pronounced \bʁik\.

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 11966, this pair ranks #407,092 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of banque vs brique

Shared letters: bequ. Private to "banque": an. Private to "brique": ir.

"banque" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "brique" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • banqueabnque · bannque · banqeu · banqque · banuqe · baqnue · bbanque · bnaque
  • briquebbrique · birque · briqeu · briqque · briuqe · brqiue · brrique · rbique

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "banque" and "brique" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\bɑ̃k\ versus \bʁik\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "banque" or "brique"?
"banque" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,134 in our French list, against #10,832 for "brique". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "banque" and "brique". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "banque" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "brique" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #407,092 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "banque" and "brique" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "braqués vs brique". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list