barresvsbordésWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: barres is a noun, bordés is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“barres” is a noun and “bordés” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#6,786
“barres” frequency rank
#48,950
“bordés” frequency rank
55736
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature barres bordés
Definition Pluriel de barre. Masculin pluriel de bordé.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set barres and bordés apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
barres
6 ch
bordés

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: barres is \baʁ\ while bordés is \bɔʁ.de\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55736, 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\. bordés is at rank #48,950, tagged as anadj, pronounced \bɔʁ.de\.

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 55736, this pair ranks #125,534 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of barres vs bordés

Shared letters: brs. Private to "barres": ae. Private to "bordés": doé.

"barres" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "bordés" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • barresbarers · bares · barress · barrse · bbarres · brares

Frequency comparison

barres#6,786
bordés#48,950

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "barres" and "bordés" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "barres" is a noun and "bordés" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "barres" or "bordés"?
"barres" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,786 in our French list, against #48,950 for "bordés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering barres vs bordés

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “barres”; for an adjective, it's “bordés”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “barres” 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