barréevsbarrerWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#25,217
“barrée” frequency rank
#12,523
“barrer” frequency rank
37740
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature barrée barrer
Definition Féminin singulier de barré. Fermer avec une barre.

Where the spellings diverge

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

6 ch
barrée
6 ch
barrer

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: barrée and barrer carry the same recorded pronunciation, \ba.ʁe\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37740, 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\. 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 37740, this pair ranks #260,261 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of barrée vs barrer

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

"barrée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "barrer" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • barrerabrrer · barerr · barrerr · barrre · bbarrer · brarer

Frequency comparison

barrée#25,217
barrer#12,523

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "barrée" and "barrer" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "barrée" is an adjective and "barrer" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "barrée" or "barrer"?
"barrer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,523 in our French list, against #25,217 for "barrée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering barrée vs barrer

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 “barrer”.
  • 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