berlinevsberlinesConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#16,075
“berline” frequency rank
#36,721
“berlines” frequency rank
52796
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature berline berlines
Definition Sorte de grande voiture hippomobile fermée, suspendue, à deux fonds et à quatre roues, dont on se servait surtout pour le voyage. Pluriel de berline.

Same sound, different letters: berline vs berlines

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters.

7 ch
berline
8 ch
berlines

Ear matches; page differs - berline and berlines

This is the hard kind. berline and berlines are pronounced identically (\bɛʁ.lin\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “berline” sits inside “berlines”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52796, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

berline is recorded at frequency rank #16,075, classified as anoun, pronounced \bɛʁ.lin\. berlines is at rank #36,721, tagged as anoun, pronounced \bɛʁ.lin\.

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 52796, this pair ranks #145,227 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of berline vs berlines

Shared letters: beilnr. Private to "berline": -. Private to "berlines": s.

"berline" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "berlines" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • berlinebberline · belrine · berilne · berlien · berlinne · berlline · berlnie · berrline
  • berlinesbberlines · belrines · berilnes · berliens · berliness · berlinnes · berlinse · berllines

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "berline" and "berlines" be used interchangeably?
No. They are pronounced the same (\bɛʁ.lin\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Which is more common, "berline" or "berlines"?
"berline" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,075 in our French list, against #36,721 for "berlines". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've separated the homophone pair "berline" / "berlines". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "berline" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "berlines" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #145,227 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "berline" and "berlines" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "berlines vs Berlinois". 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 #145,227 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