takvstankWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#49,387
“tak” frequency rank
#11,490
“tank” frequency rank
60877
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tak tank
Definition Branche (d’un arbre). Char d’assaut, char de combat, blindé.

Where the eye mixes tak and tank

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. tak runs 3 letters (CVC) against tank's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
tak
4 ch
tank

Look-alike desk: tak vs tank

A purely visual mix-up. tak (\tɑk\) and tank (\tɑ̃k\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60877, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tak is recorded at frequency rank #49,387, classified as anoun, pronounced \tɑk\. tank is at rank #11,490, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tɑ̃k\.

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 60877, this pair ranks #95,308 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of tak vs tank

Shared letters: akt. Private to "tak": -. Private to "tank": n.

"tak" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "tank" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tank ← atnk · takn · tankk · tannk · tnak · ttank

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "tak" and "tank" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\tɑk\ versus \tɑ̃k\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "tak" vs "tank" - which ranks higher?
"tank" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,490 in our French list, against #49,387 for "tak". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "tak" and "tank" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tak" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tank" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #95,308 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tak" and "tank" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tak vs tif". 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 #95,308 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