baiesvsbasWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#11,718
“baies” frequency rank
#343
“bas” frequency rank
12061
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature baies bas
Definition Féminin pluriel de bai. Qui a peu de hauteur ou d’élévation.

Where the eye mixes baies and bas

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
baies
3 ch
bas

Why the eye confuses baies with bas

A purely visual mix-up. baies (\bɛ\) and bas (\ba\) 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 12061, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

baies is recorded at frequency rank #11,718, classified as anadj, pronounced \bɛ\. bas is at rank #343, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ba\.

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 12061, this pair ranks #406,738 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of baies vs bas

Shared letters: abs. Private to "baies": ei. Private to "bas": -.

"baies" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC  ·  "bas" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • baiesabies · baeis · baiess · bbaies · biaes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "baies" for "bas" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\bɛ\ versus \ba\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "baies" vs "bas" - which ranks higher?
"bas" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #343 in our French list, against #11,718 for "baies". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "baies" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #406,738 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "baies" and "bas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "baies vs Blier". 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 #406,738 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