bargesvsbâtiesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“barges” and “bâties” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#45,466
“barges” frequency rank
#23,788
“bâties” frequency rank
69254
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature barges bâties
Definition Pluriel de barge. Féminin pluriel de bâti.

Where the eye mixes barges and bâties

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. barges (CVCCVC) and bâties (CVCVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
barges
6 ch
bâties

Why the eye confuses barges with bâties

A purely visual mix-up. barges (\baʁʒ\) and bâties (\bɑ.ti\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 69254, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

barges is recorded at frequency rank #45,466, classified as anadj, pronounced \baʁʒ\. bâties is at rank #23,788, tagged as anadj, pronounced \bɑ.ti\.

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 69254, this pair ranks #55,867 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of barges vs bâties

Shared letters: bes. Private to "barges": agr. Private to "bâties": itâ.

"barges" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "bâties" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • barges ← abrges · bagres · baregs · bargess · bargges · bargse · barrges · bbarges

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "barges" for "bâties" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\baʁʒ\ versus \bɑ.ti\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "barges" or "bâties"?
"bâties" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,788 in our French list, against #45,466 for "barges". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "barges" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bâties" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #55,867 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "barges" and "bâties" 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 #55,867 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