Which to use
“balaye” is a verb and “ballade” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #40,133
- “balaye” frequency rank
- #13,973
- “ballade” frequency rank
- 54106
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | balaye | ballade |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent du verbe balayer. | Poème à forme fixe, composé de couplets faits sur les mêmes rimes avec refrain et d’un envoi. |
Where the eye mixes balaye and ballade
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. balaye runs 6 letters (CVCVVV) against ballade's 7 (CVCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: balaye vs ballade
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: balaye is \ba.lɛj\ while ballade is \ba.lad\. 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 noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54106, 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\. ballade is at rank #13,973, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ba.lad\.
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 54106, this pair ranks #136,260 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of balaye vs ballade
Shared letters: abel. Private to "balaye": y. Private to "ballade": d.
"balaye" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVV · "ballade" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "balaye" for "ballade" ever safe?
Frequency check: "balaye" vs "ballade" - which ranks higher?
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 "balaye" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "ballade" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #136,260 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "balaye" and "ballade" 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 #136,260 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.