Which to use
“balades” and “balances” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #18,941
- “balades” frequency rank
- #21,246
- “balances” frequency rank
- 40187
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | balades | balances |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de balade. | Pluriel de balance. |
Where the eye mixes balades and balances
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. balades runs 7 letters (CVCVCVC) against balances's 8 (CVCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between balades and balances
A purely visual mix-up. balades (\ba.lad\) and balances (\ba.lɑ̃s\) 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 40187, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
balades is recorded at frequency rank #18,941, classified as anoun, pronounced \ba.lad\. balances is at rank #21,246, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ba.lɑ̃s\.
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 40187, this pair ranks #242,376 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of balades vs balances
Shared letters: abels. Private to "balades": d. Private to "balances": cn.
"balades" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC · "balances" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "balades" for "balances" ever safe?
Which is more common, "balades" or "balances"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "balades" and "balances" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "balades" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "balances" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #242,376 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "balades" and "balances" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "balances vs balancez". 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 #242,376 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.