bandevsbasseWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#915
“bande” frequency rank
#2,162
“basse” frequency rank
3077
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bande basse
Definition Sorte de lien plat et large. Ligne mélodique qui contient les notes les plus graves.

Where the eye mixes bande and basse

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
bande
5 ch
basse

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. bande (\bɑ̃d\) and basse (\bɑs\) 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 3077, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bande is recorded at frequency rank #915, classified as anoun, pronounced \bɑ̃d\. basse is at rank #2,162, tagged as anoun, pronounced \bɑs\.

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 3077, this pair ranks #434,834 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of bande vs basse

Shared letters: abe. Private to "bande": dn. Private to "basse": s.

"bande" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "basse" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bandeabnde · badne · bandde · baned · bannde · bbande · bnade
  • basseabsse · bbasse · bsase

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "bande" and "basse" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\bɑ̃d\ versus \bɑs\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "bande" or "basse"?
"bande" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #915 in our French list, against #2,162 for "basse". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "bande" and "basse". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "bande" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "basse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #434,834 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bande" and "basse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "baissa vs basse". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list