basvsbushWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: bas is a adjective, bush is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#343
“bas” frequency rank
#8,209
“bush” frequency rank
8552
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bas bush
Definition Qui a peu de hauteur ou d’élévation. Arrière-pays peu habité de savane ou de forêts, bois et broussailles méditerranéens.

Where the eye mixes bas and bush

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
bas
4 ch
bush

Look-alike desk: bas vs bush

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: bas is \ba\ while bush is \buʃ\. 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 noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8552, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bas is recorded at frequency rank #343, classified as anadj, pronounced \ba\. bush is at rank #8,209, tagged as anoun, pronounced \buʃ\.

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 8552, this pair ranks #419,640 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of bas vs bush

Shared letters: bs. Private to "bas": a. Private to "bush": hu.

"bas" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "bush" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bushbbush · bsuh · buhs · bushh · bussh · ubsh

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "bas" and "bush" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "bas" is an adjective and "bush" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "bas" vs "bush" - which ranks higher?
"bas" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #343 in our French list, against #8,209 for "bush". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "bas" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bush" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #419,640 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bas" and "bush" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bury vs bush". 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 #419,640 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list