Which to use
“barge” and “bre” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #28,069
- “barge” frequency rank
- #40,639
- “bre” frequency rank
- 68708
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | barge | bre |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Oiseau limicole du genre Limosa. | Mont, montagne. |
Where the eye mixes barge and bre
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. barge runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against bre's 3 (CCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses barge with bre
A purely visual mix-up. barge (\baʁʒ\) and bre (\breː\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68708, 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\. bre is at rank #40,639, tagged as anoun, pronounced \breː\.
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 68708, this pair ranks #58,019 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of barge vs bre
Shared letters: ber. Private to "barge": ag. Private to "bre": -.
"barge" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "bre" · 3 letters · shape CCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- barge ← abrge · bagre · bareg · bargge · barrge · bbarge · brage
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "barge" for "bre" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "barge" or "bre" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "barge" and "bre" 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 "bre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #58,019 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "barge" and "bre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bre vs bury". 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 #58,019 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.