Which to use
“balaye” and “balayée” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #40,133
- “balaye” frequency rank
- #45,461
- “balayée” frequency rank
- 85594
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | balaye | balayée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent du verbe balayer. | Participe passé féminin singulier du verbe balayer. |
Where the eye mixes balaye and balayée
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. balaye runs 6 letters (CVCVVV) against balayée's 7 (CVCVVVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: balaye vs balayée
A purely visual mix-up. balaye (\ba.lɛj\) and balayée (\ba.lɛ.je\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 85594, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
balaye is recorded at frequency rank #40,133, classified as averb, pronounced \ba.lɛj\. balayée is at rank #45,461, tagged as averb, pronounced \ba.lɛ.je\.
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 85594, this pair ranks #11,077 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of balaye vs balayée
Shared letters: abely. Private to "balaye": -. Private to "balayée": é.
"balaye" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVV · "balayée" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- balaye ← ablaye · baalye · balaey · balayye · ballaye · balyae · bbalaye · blaaye
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "balaye" for "balayée" ever safe?
Which is more common, "balaye" or "balayée"?
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 "balaye" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "balayée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #11,077 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "balaye" and "balayée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "balayée vs Blaye". 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 #11,077 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.