Which to use
“barre” is a noun and “barrez” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,068
- “barre” frequency rank
- #46,019
- “barrez” frequency rank
- 48087
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | barre | barrez |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pièce de bois, de métal, etc., étroite et longue. | Deuxième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent du verbe barrer. |
Where the eye mixes barre and barrez
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. barre runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against barrez's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between barre and barrez
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: barre is \baʁ\ while barrez is \ba.ʁe\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “barre” sits inside “barrez”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48087, 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\. barrez is at rank #46,019, tagged as averb, 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 48087, this pair ranks #181,760 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of barre vs barrez
Shared letters: aber. Private to "barre": -. Private to "barrez": z.
"barre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "barrez" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "barre" and "barrez" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "barre" or "barrez"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "barre" and "barrez" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "barre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "barrez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #181,760 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "barre" and "barrez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "baisez vs barrez". 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 #181,760 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.