Which to use
“balle” and “bills” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #2,067
- “balle” frequency rank
- #38,677
- “bills” frequency rank
- 40744
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | balle | bills |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Objet sphérique utilisé pour jouer. | Pluriel de bill. |
Where the eye mixes balle and bills
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. balle (CVCCV) and bills (CVCCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses balle with bills
A purely visual mix-up. balle (\bal\) and bills (\bil\) 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 40744, 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\. bills is at rank #38,677, tagged as anoun, pronounced \bil\.
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 40744, this pair ranks #238,214 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of balle vs bills
Shared letters: bl. Private to "balle": ae. Private to "bills": is.
"balle" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "bills" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "balle" for "bills" ever safe?
Which is more common, "balle" or "bills"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "balle" and "bills" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "balle" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "bills" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #238,214 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "balle" and "bills" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bibles vs bills". 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 #238,214 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.