bâtirvsbattitConfusable pair

Which to use

“bâtir” and “battit” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#7,157
“bâtir” frequency rank
#40,622
“battit” frequency rank
47779
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bâtir battit
Definition Agencer, disposer les pièces d’un vêtement en les faufilant, en les assemblant avec de grands points d’aiguille avant de les coudre tout à fait. Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de battre.

Where the eye mixes bâtir and battit

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. bâtir runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against battit's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
bâtir
6 ch
battit

Why the eye confuses bâtir with battit

A purely visual mix-up. bâtir (\ba.tiʁ\) and battit (\ba.ti\) 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 47779, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bâtir is recorded at frequency rank #7,157, classified as averb, pronounced \ba.tiʁ\. battit is at rank #40,622, tagged as averb, pronounced \ba.ti\.

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 47779, this pair ranks #184,221 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of bâtir vs battit

Shared letters: bit. Private to "bâtir": . Private to "battit": a.

"bâtir" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "battit" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • battitabttit · batitt · battitt · battti · bbattit · btatit

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "bâtir" and "battit" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ba.tiʁ\ versus \ba.ti\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "bâtir" or "battit"?
"bâtir" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,157 in our French list, against #40,622 for "battit". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "bâtir" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "battit" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #184,221 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bâtir" and "battit" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "battit vs bottin". 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 #184,221 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