planervsplanquerTell them apart

Which to use

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

#19,368
“planer” frequency rank
#27,911
“planquer” frequency rank
47279
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature planer planquer
Definition Se soutenir en l’air, les ailes étendues et immobiles, en parlant des oiseaux. Cacher, mettre en lieu sûr.

Where the eye mixes planer and planquer

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

6 ch
planer
8 ch
planquer

Why the eye confuses planer with planquer

A purely visual mix-up. planer (\pla.ne\) and planquer (\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 differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47279, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

planer is recorded at frequency rank #19,368, classified as averb, pronounced \pla.ne\. planquer is at rank #27,911, tagged as averb, 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 47279, this pair ranks #188,191 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of planer vs planquer

Shared letters: aelnpr. Private to "planer": -. Private to "planquer": qu.

"planer" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "planquer" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • planerlpaner · palner · plaenr · planerr · planner · planre · pllaner · plnaer
  • planquerlpanquer · palnquer · plannquer · planqeur · planqquer · planquerr · planqure · planuqer

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "planer" for "planquer" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\pla.ne\ versus \plɑ̃.ke\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "planer" or "planquer"?
"planer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,368 in our French list, against #27,911 for "planquer". 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 "planer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "planquer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #188,191 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "planer" and "planquer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "planquer 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 #188,191 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