banquesvsbarquesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#2,659
“banques” frequency rank
#33,137
“barques” frequency rank
35796
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature banques barques
Definition Pluriel de banque. Pluriel de barque.

Where the eye mixes banques and barques

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

7 ch
banques
7 ch
barques

Look-alike desk: banques vs barques

A purely visual mix-up. banques (\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 a single letter - n in “banques” becomes r in “barques”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35796, 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\. 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 35796, this pair ranks #274,173 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of banques vs barques

Shared letters: abeqsu. Private to "banques": n. Private to "barques": r.

"banques" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC  ·  "barques" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • banquesabnques · bannques · banqeus · banqques · banquess · banquse · banuqes · baqnues
  • barquesabrques · baqrues · barqeus · barqques · barquess · barquse · barrques · baruqes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "banques" 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, "banques" or "barques"?
"banques" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,659 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.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "banques" 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 #274,173 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "banques" 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 #274,173 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