barrevsbarréeWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#2,068
“barre” frequency rank
#25,217
“barrée” frequency rank
27285
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature barre barrée
Definition Pièce de bois, de métal, etc., étroite et longue. Féminin singulier de barré.

Where the spellings diverge

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

5 ch
barre
6 ch
barrée

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: barre is \baʁ\ while barrée is \ba.ʁe\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27285, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

barre is recorded at frequency rank #2,068, classified as anoun, pronounced \baʁ\. barrée is at rank #25,217, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ba.ʁe\.

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 27285, this pair ranks #329,961 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of barre vs barrée

Shared letters: aber. Private to "barre": -. Private to "barrée": é.

"barre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "barrée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • barreabrre · bare · barer · bbarre · brare

Frequency comparison

barre#2,068
barrée#25,217

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "barre" and "barrée" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "barre" is a noun and "barrée" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "barre" or "barrée"?
"barre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,068 in our French list, against #25,217 for "barrée". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering barre vs barrée

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “barre”; for an adjective, it's “barrée”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “barre” 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