barquesvsbattuesWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: barques is a noun, battues is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“barques” is a noun and “battues” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#33,137
“barques” frequency rank
#22,778
“battues” frequency rank
55915
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature barques battues
Definition Pluriel de barque. Féminin pluriel de battu.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set barques and battues apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

7 ch
barques
7 ch
battues

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: barques is \baʁk\ while battues is \ba.ty\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55915, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

barques is recorded at frequency rank #33,137, classified as anoun, pronounced \baʁk\. battues is at rank #22,778, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ba.ty\.

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 55915, this pair ranks #124,388 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of barques vs battues

Shared letters: abesu. Private to "barques": qr. Private to "battues": t.

"barques" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC  ·  "battues" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • barquesabrques · baqrues · barqeus · barqques · barquess · barquse · barrques · baruqes
  • battuesabttues · batteus · battuess · battuse · batues · batutes · bbattues · btatues

Frequency comparison

barques#33,137
battues#22,778

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "barques" and "battues" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "barques" is a noun and "battues" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "barques" or "battues"?
"battues" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,778 in our French list, against #33,137 for "barques". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering barques vs battues

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “barques”; for an adjective, it's “battues”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “barques” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list