kanevskunWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: kane is a verb, kun is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“kane” is a verb and “kun” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#13,199
“kane” frequency rank
#28,227
“kun” frequency rank
41426
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature kane kun
Definition Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif du verbe kanal/kanañ/kaniñ. Tête.

Where the eye mixes kane and kun

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
kane
3 ch
kun

Why the eye confuses kane with kun

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: kane is \ˈkãː.ne\ while kun is \kùn\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41426, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

kane is recorded at frequency rank #13,199, classified as averb, pronounced \ˈkãː.ne\. kun is at rank #28,227, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kùn\.

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 41426, this pair ranks #233,197 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of kane vs kun

Shared letters: kn. Private to "kane": ae. Private to "kun": u.

"kane" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "kun" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • kaneakne · kaen · kanne · kkane · knae

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "kane" and "kun" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "kane" is a verb and "kun" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "kane" or "kun"?
"kane" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,199 in our French list, against #28,227 for "kun". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "kane" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "kun" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #233,197 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "kane" and "kun" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "kun vs ky". 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 #233,197 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