Which to use
“barque” and “brique” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #15,097
- “barque” frequency rank
- #10,832
- “brique” frequency rank
- 25929
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | barque | brique |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Petit bateau. | Bloc de pierre artificielle fabriqué avec de la terre argileuse pétrie, moulée, séchée, cuite, et dont on se sert comme matériau de construction. Elle peut être pleine, alvéolée ou creuse. |
Where the eye mixes barque and brique
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses barque with brique
A purely visual mix-up. barque (\baʁk\) and brique (\bʁik\) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25929, 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\. brique is at rank #10,832, tagged as anoun, pronounced \bʁik\.
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 25929, this pair ranks #338,053 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of barque vs brique
Shared letters: beqru. Private to "barque": a. Private to "brique": i.
"barque" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV · "brique" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "barque" and "brique" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "barque" vs "brique" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "barque" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "brique" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #338,053 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "barque" and "brique" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "baquet vs barque". 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 #338,053 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.