baisservsbaissezConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#3,896
“baisser” frequency rank
#38,165
“baissez” frequency rank
42061
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature baisser baissez
Definition Faire descendre, mettre plus bas. Deuxième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent du verbe baisser.

Where the eye mixes baisser and baissez

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. baisser and baissez follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
baisser
7 ch
baissez

Visual trap between baisser and baissez

A purely visual mix-up. baisser (\be.se\) and baissez (\bɛ.se\) 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 a single letter - r in “baisser” becomes z in “baissez”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42061, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

baisser is recorded at frequency rank #3,896, classified as averb, pronounced \be.se\. baissez is at rank #38,165, tagged as averb, pronounced \bɛ.se\.

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 42061, this pair ranks #228,507 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of baisser vs baissez

Shared letters: abeis. Private to "baisser": r. Private to "baissez": z.

"baisser" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC  ·  "baissez" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • baisser ← abisser · baisesr · baisserr · baissre · basiser · bbaisser · biasser
  • baissez ← abissez · baisesz · baissezz · baissze · basisez · bbaissez · biassez

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "baisser" for "baissez" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\be.se\ versus \bɛ.se\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "baisser" or "baissez" show up more?
"baisser" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,896 in our French list, against #38,165 for "baissez". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "baisser" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "baissez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #228,507 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "baisser" and "baissez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "baissa vs baissez". 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 #228,507 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