banquesvsbanquetsWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#2,659
“banques” frequency rank
#34,432
“banquets” frequency rank
37091
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature banques banquets
Definition Pluriel de banque. Pluriel de banquet.

Where the eye mixes banques and banquets

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. banques runs 7 letters (CVCCVVC) against banquets's 8 (CVCCVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
banques
8 ch
banquets

Why the eye confuses banques with banquets

A purely visual mix-up. banques (\bɑ̃k\) and banquets (\bɑ̃.kɛ\) 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 37091, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

banques is recorded at frequency rank #2,659, classified as anoun, pronounced \bɑ̃k\. banquets is at rank #34,432, tagged as anoun, pronounced \bɑ̃.kɛ\.

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 37091, this pair ranks #264,956 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of banques vs banquets

Shared letters: abenqsu. Private to "banques": -. Private to "banquets": t.

"banques" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC  ·  "banquets" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • banques ← abnques · bannques · banqeus · banqques · banquess · banquse · banuqes · baqnues
  • banquets ← abnquets · bannquets · banqeuts · banqquets · banquest · banquetss · banquetts · banqutes

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "banques" and "banquets" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\bɑ̃k\ versus \bɑ̃.kɛ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "banques" or "banquets"?
"banques" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,659 in our French list, against #34,432 for "banquets". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "banques" and "banquets" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "banques" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "banquets" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #264,956 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "banques" and "banquets" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "banquets vs bosquets". 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 #264,956 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