barèmesvsBarthesTell them apart

Quick tell: barèmes is a noun, Barthes is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“barèmes” is a noun and “Barthes” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#44,326
“barèmes” frequency rank
#31,841
“Barthes” frequency rank
76167
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature barèmes Barthes
Definition Pluriel de barème. Nom de famille.

Where the eye mixes barèmes and Barthes

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

7 ch
barèmes
7 ch
Barthes

Look-alike desk: barèmes vs Barthes

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: barèmes is \ba.ʁɛm\ while Barthes is \baʁt\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 76167, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

barèmes is recorded at frequency rank #44,326, classified as anoun, pronounced \ba.ʁɛm\. Barthes is at rank #31,841, tagged as aname, pronounced \baʁt\.

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 76167, this pair ranks #31,910 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of barèmes vs Barthes

Shared letters: abers. Private to "barèmes": . Private to "Barthes": ht.

"barèmes" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "Barthes" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Barthesabrthes · barhtes · barrthes · bartehs · barthess · barthhes · barthse · bartthes

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "barèmes" and "Barthes" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "barèmes" is a noun and "Barthes" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "barèmes" or "Barthes"?
"Barthes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,841 in our French list, against #44,326 for "barèmes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "barèmes" and "Barthes" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "barèmes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Barthes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #31,910 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "barèmes" and "Barthes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "barèmes vs barges". 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 #31,910 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