Which to use
“balaie” and “balaye” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #34,886
- “balaie” frequency rank
- #40,133
- “balaye” frequency rank
- 75019
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | balaie | balaye |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent du verbe balayer. | Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent du verbe balayer. |
Where the eye mixes balaie and balaye
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. balaie and balaye follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses balaie with balaye
A purely visual mix-up. balaie (\ba.lɛ\) 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 a single letter - i in “balaie” becomes y in “balaye”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 75019, 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\. 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 75019, this pair ranks #35,360 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of balaie vs balaye
Shared letters: abel. Private to "balaie": i. Private to "balaye": y.
"balaie" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVV · "balaye" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "balaie" and "balaye" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "balaie" or "balaye" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "balaie" 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 #35,360 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "balaie" 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 #35,360 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.