Which to use
“balader” and “balaye” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #10,642
- “balader” frequency rank
- #40,133
- “balaye” frequency rank
- 50775
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | balader | balaye |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Se promener. | Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent du verbe balayer. |
Where the eye mixes balader and balaye
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. balader runs 7 letters (CVCVCVC) against balaye's 6 (CVCVVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses balader with balaye
A purely visual mix-up. balader (\ba.la.de\) and balaye (\ba.lɛj\) 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 50775, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
balader is recorded at frequency rank #10,642, classified as averb, pronounced \ba.la.de\. balaye is at rank #40,133, tagged as averb, pronounced \ba.lɛj\.
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 50775, this pair ranks #160,075 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of balader vs balaye
Shared letters: abel. Private to "balader": dr. Private to "balaye": y.
"balader" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC · "balaye" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "balader" and "balaye" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "balader" or "balaye"?
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 "balader" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "balaye" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #160,075 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "balader" and "balaye" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "balaye vs basale". 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 #160,075 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.