planevsplanqueTell them apart

Which to use

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

#12,835
“plane” frequency rank
#26,828
“planque” frequency rank
39663
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature plane planque
Definition Platane. Cachette.

Where the eye mixes plane and planque

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

5 ch
plane
7 ch
planque

Look-alike desk: plane vs planque

A purely visual mix-up. plane (\plan\) and planque (\plɑ̃k\) 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 39663, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

plane is recorded at frequency rank #12,835, classified as anoun, pronounced \plan\. planque is at rank #26,828, tagged as anoun, pronounced \plɑ̃k\.

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 39663, this pair ranks #246,312 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of plane vs planque

Shared letters: aelnp. Private to "plane": -. Private to "planque": qu.

"plane" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "planque" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • planelpane · palne · plaen · planne · pllane · plnae · pplane
  • planquelpanque · palnque · plannque · planqeu · planqque · planuqe · plaqnue · pllanque

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "plane" and "planque" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\plan\ versus \plɑ̃k\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "plane" or "planque"?
"plane" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,835 in our French list, against #26,828 for "planque". 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 "plane" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "planque" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #246,312 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "plane" and "planque" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pasque vs planque". 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 #246,312 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