Which to use
“barge” is a noun and “barges” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #28,069
- “barge” frequency rank
- #45,466
- “barges” frequency rank
- 73535
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | barge | barges |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Oiseau limicole du genre Limosa. | Pluriel de barge. |
Same sound, different letters: barge vs barges
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. barge runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against barges's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Homophone desk: barge vs barges
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: barge and barges carry the same recorded pronunciation, \baʁʒ\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “barge” sits inside “barges”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 73535, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
barge is recorded at frequency rank #28,069, classified as anoun, pronounced \baʁʒ\. barges is at rank #45,466, tagged as anadj, pronounced \baʁʒ\.
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 73535, this pair ranks #40,132 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of barge vs barges
Shared letters: abegr. Private to "barge": -. Private to "barges": s.
"barge" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "barges" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "barge" and "barges" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "barge" or "barges" show up more?
Useful next steps
You've separated the homophone pair "barge" / "barges". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "barge" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "barges" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #40,132 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "barge" and "barges" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "badger 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 #40,132 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.