banquesvsbanyulsTell them apart

Which to use

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

#2,659
“banques” frequency rank
#48,937
“banyuls” frequency rank
51596
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature banques banyuls
Definition Pluriel de banque. Vin doux naturel d’appellation d’origine produit à partir des vignobles de cette commune.

Where the eye mixes banques and banyuls

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. banques (CVCCVVC) and banyuls (CVCVVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
banques
7 ch
banyuls

Why the eye confuses banques with banyuls

A purely visual mix-up. banques (\bɑ̃k\) and banyuls (\ba.ɲuls\) 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 51596, 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\. banyuls is at rank #48,937, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ba.ɲuls\.

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 51596, this pair ranks #153,840 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of banques vs banyuls

Shared letters: abnsu. Private to "banques": eq. Private to "banyuls": ly.

"banques" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC  ·  "banyuls" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • banques ← abnques · bannques · banqeus · banqques · banquess · banquse · banuqes · baqnues
  • banyuls ← abnyuls · bannyuls · banuyls · banylus · banyulls · banyulss · banyusl · banyyuls

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "banques" and "banyuls" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\bɑ̃k\ versus \ba.ɲuls\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "banques" vs "banyuls" - which ranks higher?
"banques" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,659 in our French list, against #48,937 for "banyuls". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "banques" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "banyuls" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #153,840 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "banques" and "banyuls" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "banals 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 #153,840 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