bargevsbarrezWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: barge is a noun, barrez is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“barge” is a noun and “barrez” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#28,069
“barge” frequency rank
#46,019
“barrez” frequency rank
74088
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature barge barrez
Definition Oiseau limicole du genre Limosa. Deuxième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent du verbe barrer.

Where the eye mixes barge and barrez

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
barge
6 ch
barrez

Why the eye confuses barge with barrez

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: barge is \baʁʒ\ while barrez is \ba.ʁe\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 74088, 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\. barrez is at rank #46,019, tagged as averb, pronounced \ba.ʁe\.

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 74088, this pair ranks #38,295 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of barge vs barrez

Shared letters: aber. Private to "barge": g. Private to "barrez": z.

"barge" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "barrez" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bargeabrge · bagre · bareg · bargge · barrge · bbarge · brage
  • barrezabrrez · barerz · barez · barrezz · barrze · bbarrez · brarez

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "barge" and "barrez" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "barge" is a noun and "barrez" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "barge" or "barrez" show up more?
"barge" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,069 in our French list, against #46,019 for "barrez". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "barge" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "barrez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #38,295 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "barge" and "barrez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "baisez vs barrez". 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 #38,295 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