Which to use
“balais” is an adjective and “balles” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #18,942
- “balais” frequency rank
- #2,557
- “balles” frequency rank
- 21499
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | balais | balles |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | De couleur de vin paillet, en parlant d’un rubis. | Pluriel de balle. |
Where the eye mixes balais and balles
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses balais with balles
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: balais is \ba.lɛ\ while balles is \bal\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21499, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
balais is recorded at frequency rank #18,942, classified as anadj, pronounced \ba.lɛ\. balles is at rank #2,557, tagged as anoun, pronounced \bal\.
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 21499, this pair ranks #362,865 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of balais vs balles
Shared letters: abls. Private to "balais": i. Private to "balles": e.
"balais" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC · "balles" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "balais" for "balles" ever safe?
Frequency check: "balais" vs "balles" - 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 "balais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "balles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #362,865 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "balais" and "balles" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "balais vs banals". 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 #362,865 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.