bainvsbriWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#2,309
“bain” frequency rank
#31,860
“bri” frequency rank
34169
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bain bri
Definition Action de baigner ou de se baigner. Variante de bry.

Where the eye mixes bain and bri

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
bain
3 ch
bri

Visual trap between bain and bri

A purely visual mix-up. bain (\bɛ̃\) and bri (\bʁi\) 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 34169, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bain is recorded at frequency rank #2,309, classified as anoun, pronounced \bɛ̃\. bri is at rank #31,860, tagged as anoun, pronounced \bʁi\.

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 34169, this pair ranks #285,686 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of bain vs bri

Shared letters: bi. Private to "bain": an. Private to "bri": r.

"bain" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "bri" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bainabin · bainn · bani · bbain · bian

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "bain" and "bri" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\bɛ̃\ versus \bʁi\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "bain" or "bri"?
"bain" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,309 in our French list, against #31,860 for "bri". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "bain" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bri" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #285,686 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bain" and "bri" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bri vs bury". 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 #285,686 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