baraquevsbriqueWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#15,812
“baraque” frequency rank
#10,832
“brique” frequency rank
26644
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature baraque brique
Definition Construction provisoire et légère, généralement faite en planches. Bloc de pierre artificielle fabriqué avec de la terre argileuse pétrie, moulée, séchée, cuite, et dont on se sert comme matériau de construction. Elle peut être pleine, alvéolée ou creuse.

Where the eye mixes baraque and brique

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
baraque
6 ch
brique

Look-alike desk: baraque vs brique

A purely visual mix-up. baraque (\ba.ʁak\) and brique (\bʁik\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26644, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

baraque is recorded at frequency rank #15,812, classified as anoun, pronounced \ba.ʁak\. brique is at rank #10,832, tagged as anoun, pronounced \bʁik\.

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 26644, this pair ranks #333,709 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of baraque vs brique

Shared letters: beqru. Private to "baraque": a. Private to "brique": i.

"baraque" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV  ·  "brique" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • baraqueabraque · baarque · baraqeu · baraqque · barauqe · barqaue · barraque · bbaraque
  • briquebbrique · birque · briqeu · briqque · briuqe · brqiue · brrique · rbique

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "baraque" and "brique" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ba.ʁak\ versus \bʁik\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "baraque" or "brique" show up more?
"brique" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,832 in our French list, against #15,812 for "baraque". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "baraque" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "brique" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #333,709 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "baraque" and "brique" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "barak vs baraque". 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 #333,709 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