ducksvsducsTell them apart

Which to use

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

#34,503
“ducks” frequency rank
#14,017
“ducs” frequency rank
48520
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ducks ducs
Definition Pluriel de duck. Pluriel de duc.

Where the eye mixes ducks and ducs

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
ducks
4 ch
ducs

Visual trap between ducks and ducs

A purely visual mix-up. ducks (\ˈdʌks\) and ducs (\dyk\) 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 48520, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ducks is recorded at frequency rank #34,503, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈdʌks\. ducs is at rank #14,017, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dyk\.

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 48520, this pair ranks #178,264 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ducks vs ducs

Shared letters: cdsu. Private to "ducks": k. Private to "ducs": -.

"ducks" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "ducs" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ducksdcuks · dducks · duccks · duckks · duckss · ducsk · dukcs · udcks
  • ducsdcus · dducs · duccs · ducss · dusc · udcs

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ducks" and "ducs" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ˈdʌks\ versus \dyk\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "ducks" or "ducs"?
"ducs" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,017 in our French list, against #34,503 for "ducks". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "ducks" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ducs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #178,264 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ducks" and "ducs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ducks vs ducon". 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 #178,264 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