Which to use
“Franc” is a noun and “franchi” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,878
- “Franc” frequency rank
- #9,841
- “franchi” frequency rank
- 12719
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Franc | franchi |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Membre du peuple des Francs. | Participe passé masculin singulier de franchir. |
Where the eye mixes Franc and franchi
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. Franc runs 5 letters (CCVCC) against franchi's 7 (CCVCCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between Franc and franchi
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Franc is \fʁɑ̃\ while franchi is \fʁɑ̃.ʃi\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “Franc” sits inside “franchi”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12719, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Franc is recorded at frequency rank #2,878, classified as anoun, pronounced \fʁɑ̃\. franchi is at rank #9,841, tagged as averb, pronounced \fʁɑ̃.ʃi\.
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 12719, this pair ranks #404,073 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of Franc vs franchi
Shared letters: acfnr. Private to "Franc": -. Private to "franchi": hi.
"Franc" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "franchi" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "Franc" for "franchi" ever safe?
Which is more common, "Franc" or "franchi"?
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 "Franc" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "franchi" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #404,073 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Franc" and "franchi" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "franchi vs francos". 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 #404,073 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.