Français homophones

bal/ball/balle/balles/bals

"bal" is a noun; "ball" is an adverb - grammar picks the spelling, not sound. Size rank #101 of 9,139 French groups.

Data vintage 2026-05-06

Grammar picks the spelling

Same sound, different grammar: "bal" arrives as a noun, while "ball" is an adverb. Once the sentence role is fixed, only one spelling fits.

Spelling pairs in this cluster

Shared stem "bal" then splits - "bal" (3 letters) vs "ball" (4).
Shared stem "bal" then splits - "bal" (3 letters) vs "balle" (5).
Shared stem "bal" then splits - "bal" (3 letters) vs "balles" (6).
Shared stem "bal" then splits - "bal" (3 letters) vs "bals" (4).
Shared stem "ball" then splits - "ball" (4 letters) vs "balle" (5).
Shared stem "ball" then splits - "ball" (4 letters) vs "balles" (6).
Single-letter fork: "ball" keeps l, "bals" writes s at letter 4.
Shared stem "balle" then splits - "balle" (5 letters) vs "balles" (6).
Shared stem "bal" then splits - "balle" (5 letters) vs "bals" (4).
Shared stem "bal" then splits - "balles" (6 letters) vs "bals" (4).

Orthographic DNA of this cluster

Shared letters across bal, ball, balle, balles, bals: abl. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.

bal
3 letters · 1 vowels · shape CVC
Inventory abl · no private letters vs siblings
ball
4 letters · 1 vowels · shape CVCC
Inventory abl · no private letters vs siblings
balle
5 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVCCV
Inventory abel · private e
balles
6 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVCCVC
Inventory abels · private es
bals
4 letters · 1 vowels · shape CVCC
Inventory abls · private s

Pick the spelling from the meaning

Write "bal" when you mean: Réunion, assemblée où l’on danse.
Write "ball" when you mean: Bientôt.
Write "balle" when you mean: Objet sphérique utilisé pour jouer.
Write "balles" when you mean: Pluriel de balle.
Write "bals" when you mean: Pluriel de bal.

Known mistypes of these spellings

Edit-distance variants recorded against this cluster: useful when a search or OCR feed lands on the wrong form.

ball ← abll · bball · blal
balle ← ablle · bale · balel · bballe · blale
balles ← ablles · balels · bales · balless · ballse · bballes
bals ← abls · balss · basl · bbals

Each spelling

bal

noun · /\bal\/ · #5,426 frequency

Réunion, assemblée où l’on danse.

ball

adverb · /\bal\/ · #5,733 frequency

Bientôt.

balle

noun · /\bal\/ · #2,067 frequency

Objet sphérique utilisé pour jouer.

balles

noun · /\bal\/ · #2,557 frequency

Pluriel de balle.

bals

noun · /\bal\/ · #25,215 frequency

Pluriel de bal.