Which to use
“barrage” and “barrages” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #4,911
- “barrage” frequency rank
- #9,122
- “barrages” frequency rank
- 14033
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | barrage | barrages |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Barrière qui ferme un chemin. | Pluriel de barrage. |
Where the eye mixes barrage and barrages
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. barrage runs 7 letters (CVCCVCV) against barrages's 8 (CVCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: barrage vs barrages
A purely visual mix-up. barrage (\bɑ.ʁaʒ\) and barrages (\ba.ʁaʒ\) 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 1 extra letter(s) - “barrage” sits inside “barrages”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14033, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
barrage is recorded at frequency rank #4,911, classified as anoun, pronounced \bɑ.ʁaʒ\. barrages is at rank #9,122, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ba.ʁaʒ\.
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 14033, this pair ranks #398,480 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of barrage vs barrages
Shared letters: abegr. Private to "barrage": -. Private to "barrages": s.
"barrage" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV · "barrages" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "barrage" and "barrages" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "barrage" or "barrages" show up more?
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 "barrage" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "barrages" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #398,480 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "barrage" and "barrages" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "barges vs barrages". 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 #398,480 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.