Which to use
“balais” and “bannis” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #18,942
- “balais” frequency rank
- #24,488
- “bannis” frequency rank
- 43430
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | balais | bannis |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | De couleur de vin paillet, en parlant d’un rubis. | Masculin pluriel de banni. |
Where the eye mixes balais and bannis
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses balais with bannis
A purely visual mix-up. balais (\ba.lɛ\) and bannis (\ba.ni\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43430, 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\. bannis is at rank #24,488, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ba.ni\.
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 43430, this pair ranks #218,111 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of balais vs bannis
Shared letters: abis. Private to "balais": l. Private to "bannis": n.
"balais" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC · "bannis" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "balais" and "bannis" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "balais" or "bannis"?
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 "balais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "bannis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #218,111 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "balais" and "bannis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "banals vs bannis". 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 #218,111 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.