bandervsbondésWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: bander is a verb, bondés is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“bander” is a verb and “bondés” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#19,751
“bander” frequency rank
#46,610
“bondés” frequency rank
66361
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bander bondés
Definition Lier et serrer avec un bandage. Masculin pluriel de bondé.

Where the eye mixes bander and bondés

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. bander and bondés follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
bander
6 ch
bondés

Why the eye confuses bander with bondés

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: bander is \bɑ̃.de\ while bondés is \bɔ̃.de\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66361, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bander is recorded at frequency rank #19,751, classified as averb, pronounced \bɑ̃.de\. bondés is at rank #46,610, tagged as anadj, pronounced \bɔ̃.de\.

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 66361, this pair ranks #68,170 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of bander vs bondés

Shared letters: bdn. Private to "bander": aer. Private to "bondés": osé.

"bander" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "bondés" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bander ← abnder · badner · bandder · banderr · bandre · banedr · bannder · bbander

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "bander" for "bondés" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "bander" is a verb and "bondés" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "bander" vs "bondés" - which ranks higher?
"bander" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,751 in our French list, against #46,610 for "bondés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "bander" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bondés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #68,170 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bander" and "bondés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bondés vs bourdes". 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 #68,170 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list