Which to use
“balade” and “balai” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #6,465
- “balade” frequency rank
- #15,809
- “balai” frequency rank
- 22274
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | balade | balai |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Promenade sans but précis. | Outil fait d’un faisceau souple, composé de fibres végétales ou synthétiques, ou d’une brosse, fixée au bout d’un long manche et destiné à nettoyer les poussières et déchets tombés au sol. |
Where the eye mixes balade and balai
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses balade with balai
A purely visual mix-up. balade (\ba.lad\) and balai (\ba.lɛ\) 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 22274, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
balade is recorded at frequency rank #6,465, classified as anoun, pronounced \ba.lad\. balai is at rank #15,809, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ba.lɛ\.
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 22274, this pair ranks #358,887 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of balade vs balai
Shared letters: abl. Private to "balade": de. Private to "balai": i.
"balade" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "balai" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "balade" for "balai" ever safe?
Which is more common, "balade" or "balai"?
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 "balade" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "balai" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #358,887 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "balade" and "balai" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bafa vs balai". 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 #358,887 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.