badervsbarrerTell them apart

Which to use

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

#47,176
“bader” frequency rank
#12,523
“barrer” frequency rank
59699
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bader barrer
Definition Regarder bouche bée, c’est-à-dire la bouche ouverte, parfois avec étonnement ou admiration ; contempler avec admiration ou envie. Fermer avec une barre.

Where the eye mixes bader and barrer

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. bader runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against barrer's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
bader
6 ch
barrer

Look-alike desk: bader vs barrer

A purely visual mix-up. bader (\ba.de\) and barrer (\ba.ʁe\) 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 59699, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bader is recorded at frequency rank #47,176, classified as averb, pronounced \ba.de\. barrer is at rank #12,523, tagged as averb, pronounced \ba.ʁe\.

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 59699, this pair ranks #101,673 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of bader vs barrer

Shared letters: aber. Private to "bader": d. Private to "barrer": -.

"bader" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "barrer" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bader ← abder · badder · baderr · baedr · bbader · bdaer
  • barrer ← abrrer · barerr · barrerr · barrre · bbarrer · brarer

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "bader" and "barrer" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ba.de\ versus \ba.ʁe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "bader" vs "barrer" - which ranks higher?
"barrer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,523 in our French list, against #47,176 for "bader". 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 "bader" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "barrer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #101,673 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bader" and "barrer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bader vs brider". 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 #101,673 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