Which to use
“balaye” and “balayer” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #40,133
- “balaye” frequency rank
- #16,304
- “balayer” frequency rank
- 56437
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | balaye | balayer |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent du verbe balayer. | Nettoyer un lieu avec le balai. |
Where the eye mixes balaye and balayer
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. balaye runs 6 letters (CVCVVV) against balayer's 7 (CVCVVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses balaye with balayer
A purely visual mix-up. balaye (\ba.lɛj\) and balayer (\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 extra letter(s) - “balaye” sits inside “balayer”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56437, 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\. balayer is at rank #16,304, 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 56437, this pair ranks #121,105 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of balaye vs balayer
Shared letters: abely. Private to "balaye": -. Private to "balayer": r.
"balaye" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVV · "balayer" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "balaye" and "balayer" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "balaye" or "balayer" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "balaye" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "balayer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #121,105 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "balaye" and "balayer" 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 #121,105 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.