bien

\bjɛ̃\

/\bjɛ̃\/ adv

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“bien” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #53) as an adverb. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#53
frequency rank, French
4,251
“B” headwords
4
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Marque un certain degré de perfection et d’utilité.

Corpus desk

Index FR-bien · bien · French

bien · rank #53 · 4 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-CORE #53
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-LOW 4 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,251
  • PHOTO-FINISH ils

Nearest frequency peer: ils (+1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Voisins de fréquence du confusable « bien »

Pairs de poids proche dans le corpus, séparés des confusables ci-dessous

corpus weight

What this shows Les barres placent « bien » face aux lemmes français les plus proches par rang, pas un reprint du bureau des confusables.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

bien vs BN
0% similar
bien vs bon
50% similar
bien vs big
50% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for bien
PropertyValue
Headwordbien
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdverb
IPA\bjɛ̃\
Letters4
Frequency rank#53
Misspellings tracked4
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rang de corpus près des confusables de « bien »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).biense place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « ils » (#54), « comme » (#51), « cette » (#55). Parmi 4,251 lemmes en « B », « bien » est au #53. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for bien is neighbouring look-alikes ("BN", "bon", …), not just typos; it is anadverb pronounced \bjɛ̃\. Frequency #53 among 4,251 “B” headwords. 5 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for bien, with forms such as "bbien", "bienn", and "bine". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "BN", "bon", "big", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is bien, spelled B-I-E-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    Marque un certain degré de perfection et d’utilité.
  2. 2
    Beaucoup ; fortement ; très.
  3. 3
    Au moins.
  4. 4
    De bonne grâce ; souligne l’acceptation.
  5. 5
    Davantage ; plutôt ; de préférence.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how bien appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. On jouait au Rummikub. On buvait du café, on fumait des cigarettes, et c’étaient des moments où j’étais bien.
  2. Il écrit bien. — Ses affaires vont bien.

This word in other languages

well(English)bien(Español)gut(Deutsch)bem(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • bbien
  • bienn
  • bine
  • iben

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of bien - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.

bbien1bienn1bine2iben2
Edit distance from "bien"

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "bien"?
"bien" is spelled B-I-E-N. The IPA pronunciation is \bjɛ̃\.
What does "bien" mean?
As an adverb, "bien" means: Marque un certain degré de perfection et d’utilité.
What words are commonly confused with "bien"?
"bien" is commonly confused with "BN", "bon", "big". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "bien"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "bien" is \bjɛ̃\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "bien" come from?
"bien" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "bien", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

nous#50fait#49tout#48sont#47

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list