Which to use
“barge” and “barque” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #28,069
- “barge” frequency rank
- #15,097
- “barque” frequency rank
- 43166
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | barge | barque |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Oiseau limicole du genre Limosa. | Petit bateau. |
Where the eye mixes barge and barque
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. barge runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against barque's 6 (CVCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses barge with barque
A purely visual mix-up. barge (\baʁʒ\) and barque (\baʁk\) 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 43166, 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\. barque is at rank #15,097, tagged as anoun, pronounced \baʁk\.
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 43166, this pair ranks #220,144 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of barge vs barque
Shared letters: aber. Private to "barge": g. Private to "barque": qu.
"barge" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "barque" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "barge" for "barque" ever safe?
Which is more common, "barge" or "barque"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "barge" and "barque" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "barge" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "barque" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #220,144 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "barge" and "barque" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "badger vs barge". 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 #220,144 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.