planchevsplaneWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#5,379
“planche” frequency rank
#12,835
“plane” frequency rank
18214
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature planche plane
Definition Ais, pièce de bois refendu, ayant peu d’épaisseur. Platane.

Where the eye mixes planche and plane

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
planche
5 ch
plane

Why the eye confuses planche with plane

A purely visual mix-up. planche (\plɑ̃ʃ\) and plane (\plan\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18214, 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\. plane is at rank #12,835, tagged as anoun, pronounced \plan\.

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 18214, this pair ranks #379,448 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of planche vs plane

Shared letters: aelnp. Private to "planche": ch. Private to "plane": -.

"planche" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCCV  ·  "plane" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • planchelpanche · palnche · placnhe · plancche · planceh · planchhe · planhce · plannche
  • planelpane · palne · plaen · planne · pllane · plnae · pplane

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "planche" and "plane" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\plɑ̃ʃ\ versus \plan\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "planche" or "plane"?
"planche" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,379 in our French list, against #12,835 for "plane". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "planche" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "plane" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #379,448 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "planche" and "plane" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "plaigne vs plane". 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 #379,448 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