Which to use
“barres” and “basses” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #6,786
- “barres” frequency rank
- #6,588
- “basses” frequency rank
- 13374
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | barres | basses |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de barre. | Bancs de sable, ou rochers cachés sous l'eau. |
Where the eye mixes barres and basses
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. barres and basses follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between barres and basses
A purely visual mix-up. barres (\baʁ\) and basses (\bɑs\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13374, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
barres is recorded at frequency rank #6,786, classified as anoun, pronounced \baʁ\. basses is at rank #6,588, tagged as anoun, pronounced \bɑs\.
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 13374, this pair ranks #401,280 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of barres vs basses
Shared letters: abes. Private to "barres": r. Private to "basses": -.
"barres" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "basses" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "barres" for "basses" ever safe?
Frequency check: "barres" vs "basses" - 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 "barres" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "basses" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #401,280 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "barres" and "basses" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "barres vs bordés". 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 #401,280 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.