Which to use
“balaie” is a verb and “bâtie” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #34,886
- “balaie” frequency rank
- #14,620
- “bâtie” frequency rank
- 49506
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | balaie | bâtie |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent du verbe balayer. | Féminin singulier de bâti. |
Where the eye mixes balaie and bâtie
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. balaie runs 6 letters (CVCVVV) against bâtie's 5 (CVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: balaie vs bâtie
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: balaie is \ba.lɛ\ while bâtie is \bɑ.ti\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49506, 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\. bâtie is at rank #14,620, tagged as anadj, pronounced \bɑ.ti\.
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 49506, this pair ranks #170,071 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of balaie vs bâtie
Shared letters: bei. Private to "balaie": al. Private to "bâtie": tâ.
"balaie" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVV · "bâtie" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- balaie ← ablaie · baalie · balaei · baliae · ballaie · bbalaie · blaaie
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "balaie" and "bâtie" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "balaie" vs "bâtie" - which ranks higher?
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 "balaie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "bâtie" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #170,071 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "balaie" and "bâtie" 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 #170,071 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.