ballevsbalsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“balle” and “bals” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#2,067
“balle” frequency rank
#25,215
“bals” frequency rank
27282
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature balle bals
Definition Objet sphérique utilisé pour jouer. Pluriel de bal.

Same sound, different letters: balle vs bals

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 3 letters.

5 ch
balle
4 ch
bals

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

This is the hard kind. balle and bals are pronounced identically (\bal\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27282, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

balle is recorded at frequency rank #2,067, classified as anoun, pronounced \bal\. bals is at rank #25,215, 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 27282, this pair ranks #329,990 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of balle vs bals

Shared letters: abl. Private to "balle": e. Private to "bals": s.

"balle" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "bals" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • balleablle · bale · balel · bballe · blale
  • balsabls · balss · basl · bbals

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "balle" and "bals" be used interchangeably?
No. They are pronounced the same (\bal\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Which is more common, "balle" or "bals"?
"balle" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,067 in our French list, against #25,215 for "bals". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list