Which to use
“canard” and “canards” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #4,915
- “canard” frequency rank
- #13,337
- “canards” frequency rank
- 18252
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | canard | canards |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Oiseau aquatique palmipède dont la chair est très recherchée, qu’il vive à l’état sauvage ou à l’état domestique. | Pluriel de canard. |
Same sound, different letters: canard vs canards
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters.
Same sound, different spelling - canard / canards
This is the hard kind. canard and canards are pronounced identically (\ka.naʁ\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “canard” sits inside “canards”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18252, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
canard is recorded at frequency rank #4,915, classified as anoun, pronounced \ka.naʁ\. canards is at rank #13,337, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ka.naʁ\.
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 18252, this pair ranks #379,267 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of canard vs canards
Shared letters: acdnr. Private to "canard": -. Private to "canards": s.
"canard" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC · "canards" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "canard" and "canards" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "canard" vs "canards" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
You've separated the homophone pair "canard" / "canards". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "canard" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "canards" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #379,267 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "canard" and "canards" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "canards vs canari". 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 #379,267 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.