barréevsbarrentWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: barrée is a adjective, barrent is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#25,217
“barrée” frequency rank
#47,182
“barrent” frequency rank
72399
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature barrée barrent
Definition Féminin singulier de barré. Troisième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent du verbe barrer.

Where the spellings diverge

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

6 ch
barrée
7 ch
barrent

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: barrée is \ba.ʁe\ while barrent is \baʁ\. 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 (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72399, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

barrée is recorded at frequency rank #25,217, classified as anadj, pronounced \ba.ʁe\. barrent is at rank #47,182, tagged as averb, pronounced \baʁ\.

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 72399, this pair ranks #44,133 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of barrée vs barrent

Shared letters: aber. Private to "barrée": é. Private to "barrent": nt.

"barrée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "barrent" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • barrentabrrent · barent · barernt · barrennt · barrentt · barretn · barrnet · bbarrent

Frequency comparison

barrée#25,217
barrent#47,182

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "barrée" and "barrent" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "barrée" is an adjective and "barrent" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "barrée" or "barrent"?
"barrée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,217 in our French list, against #47,182 for "barrent". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering barrée vs barrent

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “barrée”; for a verb, it's “barrent”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “barrée” 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 FrequencyWords open word-frequency list