barivsbarsConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#32,701
“bari” frequency rank
#6,467
“bars” frequency rank
39168
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bari bars
Definition Barque sacrée égyptienne. Pluriel de bar.

Where the eye mixes bari and bars

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
bari
4 ch
bars

Visual trap between bari and bars

A purely visual mix-up. bari (\ba.ʁi\) and bars (\baʁ\) 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 a single letter - i in “bari” becomes s in “bars”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39168, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bari is recorded at frequency rank #32,701, classified as anoun, pronounced \ba.ʁi\. bars is at rank #6,467, tagged as anoun, pronounced \baʁ\.

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 39168, this pair ranks #249,991 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of bari vs bars

Shared letters: abr. Private to "bari": i. Private to "bars": s.

"bari" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "bars" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • baribair · barri · bbari · brai
  • barsabrs · barrs · barss · basr · bbars

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "bari" for "bars" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ba.ʁi\ versus \baʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "bari" or "bars"?
"bars" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,467 in our French list, against #32,701 for "bari". 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 "bari" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bars" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #249,991 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bari" and "bars" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bari 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 #249,991 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