bonsvsboxesTell them apart

Quick tell: bons is a adjective, boxes is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“bons” is an adjective and “boxes” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#933
“bons” frequency rank
#41,683
“boxes” frequency rank
42616
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bons boxes
Definition Masculin pluriel de bon. Pluriel de boxe.

Where the eye mixes bons and boxes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
bons
5 ch
boxes

Visual trap between bons and boxes

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: bons is \bɔ̃\ while boxes is \bɔks\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42616, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bons is recorded at frequency rank #933, classified as anadj, pronounced \bɔ̃\. boxes is at rank #41,683, tagged as anoun, pronounced \bɔks\.

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 42616, this pair ranks #224,260 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of bons vs boxes

Shared letters: bos. Private to "bons": n. Private to "boxes": ex.

"bons" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "boxes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bonsbbons · bnos · bonns · bonss · bosn · obns
  • boxesbboxes · boexs · boxess · boxse · boxxes · bxoes · obxes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "bons" for "boxes" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "bons" is an adjective and "boxes" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "bons" vs "boxes" - which ranks higher?
"bons" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #933 in our French list, against #41,683 for "boxes". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "bons" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "boxes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #224,260 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bons" and "boxes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bordés vs boxes". 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 #224,260 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