Which to use
“balaie” is a verb and “balais” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #34,886
- “balaie” frequency rank
- #18,942
- “balais” frequency rank
- 53828
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | balaie | balais |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent du verbe balayer. | De couleur de vin paillet, en parlant d’un rubis. |
Same sound, different letters: balaie vs balais
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters.
Homophone desk: balaie vs balais
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: balaie and balais carry the same recorded pronunciation, \ba.lɛ\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is averb, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by a single letter - e in “balaie” becomes s in “balais”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53828, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
balaie is recorded at frequency rank #34,886, classified as averb, pronounced \ba.lɛ\. balais is at rank #18,942, tagged as anadj, 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 53828, this pair ranks #138,102 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of balaie vs balais
Shared letters: abil. Private to "balaie": e. Private to "balais": s.
"balaie" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVV · "balais" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "balaie" and "balais" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "balaie" or "balais"?
What to do next
You've separated the homophone pair "balaie" / "balais". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "balaie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "balais" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #138,102 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "balaie" and "balais" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "balaie 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 #138,102 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.