barquevsbraqueConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#15,097
“barque” frequency rank
#20,380
“braque” frequency rank
35477
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature barque braque
Definition Petit bateau. Race de chien d’arrêt originaires du continent européen, à oreilles pendantes et le plus souvent à poil court, parfois à poil dur, excellent pour la chasse en plaine.

Where the eye mixes barque and braque

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
barque
6 ch
braque

Visual trap between barque and braque

A purely visual mix-up. barque (\baʁk\) and braque (\bʁak\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ only by swapping two adjacent letters (ar ↔ ra) - a transposition the eye reads straight past. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35477, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

barque is recorded at frequency rank #15,097, classified as anoun, pronounced \baʁk\. braque is at rank #20,380, tagged as anoun, pronounced \bʁak\.

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 35477, this pair ranks #276,495 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of barque vs braque

Shared letters: abeqru. Private to "barque": -. Private to "braque": -.

"barque" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "braque" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • barqueabrque · baqrue · barqeu · barqque · barrque · baruqe · bbarque
  • braquebbraque · braqeu · braqque · brauqe · brqaue · brraque · rbaque

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "barque" and "braque" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\baʁk\ versus \bʁak\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "barque" or "braque" show up more?
"barque" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,097 in our French list, against #20,380 for "braque". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "barque" and "braque" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "barque" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "braque" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #276,495 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "barque" and "braque" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Braine vs braque". 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 #276,495 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