Which to use
“bâtir” is a verb and “battu” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #7,157
- “bâtir” frequency rank
- #3,238
- “battu” frequency rank
- 10395
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bâtir | battu |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Qualifie un métal qui a été travaillé à la forge. |
Where the eye mixes bâtir and battu
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: bâtir vs battu
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: bâtir is \ba.tiʁ\ while battu is \ba.ty\. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10395, 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\. battu is at rank #3,238, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ba.ty\.
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 10395, this pair ranks #413,149 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of bâtir vs battu
Shared letters: bt. Private to "bâtir": irâ. Private to "battu": au.
"bâtir" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "battu" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- battu ← abttu · batu · batut · bbattu · btatu
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "bâtir" for "battu" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "bâtir" or "battu" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "bâtir" and "battu" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "bâtir" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "battu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #413,149 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "bâtir" and "battu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bader vs bâtir". 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 #413,149 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.