Which to use
“barreau” is a noun and “barrer” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #10,455
- “barreau” frequency rank
- #12,523
- “barrer” frequency rank
- 22978
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | barreau | barrer |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Barre de bois ou de fer qui sert de clôture. | Fermer avec une barre. |
Where the eye mixes barreau and barrer
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: barreau vs barrer
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: barreau is \ba.ʁo\ while barrer 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22978, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
barreau is recorded at frequency rank #10,455, classified as anoun, pronounced \ba.ʁo\. barrer is at rank #12,523, 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 22978, this pair ranks #355,044 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of barreau vs barrer
Shared letters: aber. Private to "barreau": u. Private to "barrer": -.
"barreau" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVV · "barrer" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "barreau" and "barrer" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "barreau" vs "barrer" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "barreau" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "barrer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #355,044 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "barreau" and "barrer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "badger vs barrer". 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 #355,044 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.