Which to use
“barrent” and “barrer” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #47,182
- “barrent” frequency rank
- #12,523
- “barrer” frequency rank
- 59705
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | barrent | barrer |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent du verbe barrer. | Fermer avec une barre. |
Where the eye mixes barrent and barrer
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. barrent runs 7 letters (CVCCVCC) against barrer's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses barrent with barrer
A purely visual mix-up. barrent (\baʁ\) and barrer (\ba.ʁe\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59705, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
barrent is recorded at frequency rank #47,182, classified as averb, pronounced \baʁ\. 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 59705, this pair ranks #101,638 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of barrent vs barrer
Shared letters: aber. Private to "barrent": nt. Private to "barrer": -.
"barrent" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC · "barrer" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "barrent" for "barrer" ever safe?
Frequency check: "barrent" 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 "barrent" 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 #101,638 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "barrent" and "barrer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "barrent 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 #101,638 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.