planchevsplanchesConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#5,379
“planche” frequency rank
#6,641
“planches” frequency rank
12020
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature planche planches
Definition Ais, pièce de bois refendu, ayant peu d’épaisseur. Pluriel de planche.

Same sound, different letters: planche vs planches

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters.

7 ch
planche
8 ch
planches

Ear matches; page differs - planche and planches

This is the hard kind. planche and planches are pronounced identically (\plɑ̃ʃ\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “planche” sits inside “planches”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12020, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

planche is recorded at frequency rank #5,379, classified as anoun, pronounced \plɑ̃ʃ\. planches is at rank #6,641, tagged as anoun, pronounced \plɑ̃ʃ\.

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 12020, this pair ranks #406,888 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of planche vs planches

Shared letters: acehlnp. Private to "planche": -. Private to "planches": s.

"planche" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCCV  ·  "planches" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • planchelpanche · palnche · placnhe · plancche · planceh · planchhe · planhce · plannche
  • plancheslpanches · palnches · placnhes · plancches · plancehs · planchess · planchhes · planchse

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "planche" and "planches" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\plɑ̃ʃ\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "planche" vs "planches" - which ranks higher?
"planche" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,379 in our French list, against #6,641 for "planches". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

"planche" and "planches" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "planche" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "planches" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #406,888 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "planche" and "planches" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "planches vs planqués". 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 #406,888 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