Which to use
“fen” and “flan” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #45,041
- “fen” frequency rank
- #23,213
- “flan” frequency rank
- 68254
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fen | flan |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Monnaie chinoise. | Sorte de tarte faite avec de la crème, des œufs et de la farine. |
Where the eye mixes fen and flan
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. fen runs 3 letters (CVC) against flan's 4 (CCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between fen and flan
A purely visual mix-up. fen (\fɛn\) and flan (\flɑ̃\) 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 68254, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fen is recorded at frequency rank #45,041, classified as anoun, pronounced \fɛn\. flan is at rank #23,213, tagged as anoun, pronounced \flɑ̃\.
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 68254, this pair ranks #59,890 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of fen vs flan
Shared letters: fn. Private to "fen": e. Private to "flan": al.
"fen" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "flan" · 4 letters · shape CCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- flan ← faln · fflan · flann · fllan · flna · lfan
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "fen" for "flan" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "fen" or "flan" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "fen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "flan" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #59,890 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fen" and "flan" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Fee vs fen". 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 #59,890 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.