Which to use
“bâtir” is a verb and “butoir” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #7,157
- “bâtir” frequency rank
- #40,646
- “butoir” frequency rank
- 47803
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bâtir | butoir |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Obstacle artificiel placé sur une voie permettant l’arrêt d’un véhicule empruntant cette voie. |
Where the eye mixes bâtir and butoir
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. bâtir runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against butoir's 6 (CVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses bâtir with butoir
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: bâtir is \ba.tiʁ\ while butoir is \by.twaʁ\. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47803, 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\. butoir is at rank #40,646, tagged as anoun, pronounced \by.twaʁ\.
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 47803, this pair ranks #184,020 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of bâtir vs butoir
Shared letters: birt. Private to "bâtir": â. Private to "butoir": ou.
"bâtir" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "butoir" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- butoir ← bbutoir · btuoir · buotir · butior · butoirr · butori · buttoir · ubtoir
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "bâtir" and "butoir" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "bâtir" or "butoir" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "bâtir" and "butoir" 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 "butoir" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #184,020 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "bâtir" and "butoir" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "butoir vs Butter". 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 #184,020 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.