Which to use
“franches” is an adjective and “franchie” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #22,866
- “franches” frequency rank
- #29,362
- “franchie” frequency rank
- 52228
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | franches | franchie |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin pluriel de franc (dans le sens de « libre, vrai, sincère, exempt de taxes, etc. »). | Participe passé féminin singulier de franchir. |
Where the eye mixes franches and franchie
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. franches (CCVCCCVC) and franchie (CCVCCCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between franches and franchie
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: franches is \fʁɑ̃ʃ\ while franchie is \fʁɑ̃.ʃi\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52228, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
franches is recorded at frequency rank #22,866, classified as anadj, pronounced \fʁɑ̃ʃ\. franchie is at rank #29,362, 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 52228, this pair ranks #149,184 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of franches vs franchie
Shared letters: acefhnr. Private to "franches": s. Private to "franchie": i.
"franches" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCCVC · "franchie" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "franches" and "franchie" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "franches" or "franchie" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "franches" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "franchie" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #149,184 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "franches" and "franchie" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "franches 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 #149,184 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.