planchesvsplanquésWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#6,641
“planches” frequency rank
#44,633
“planqués” frequency rank
51274
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature planches planqués
Definition Pluriel de planche. Pluriel de planqué.

Where the eye mixes planches and planqués

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

8 ch
planches
8 ch
planqués

Look-alike desk: planches vs planqués

A purely visual mix-up. planches (\plɑ̃ʃ\) and planqués (\plɑ̃.ke\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51274, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

planches is recorded at frequency rank #6,641, classified as anoun, pronounced \plɑ̃ʃ\. planqués is at rank #44,633, tagged as anoun, pronounced \plɑ̃.ke\.

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 51274, this pair ranks #156,267 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of planches vs planqués

Shared letters: alnps. Private to "planches": ceh. Private to "planqués": qué.

"planches" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCCVC  ·  "planqués" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • plancheslpanches · palnches · placnhes · plancches · plancehs · planchess · planchhes · planchse

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "planches" for "planqués" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\plɑ̃ʃ\ versus \plɑ̃.ke\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "planches" vs "planqués" - which ranks higher?
"planches" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,641 in our French list, against #44,633 for "planqués". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "planches" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "planqués" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #156,267 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "planches" and "planqués" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "paniques 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 #156,267 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