Which to use
“bern” and “bra” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #26,641
- “bern” frequency rank
- #43,814
- “bra” frequency rank
- 70455
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bern | bra |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Tas, monceau. | Soutien-gorge. |
Where the eye mixes bern and bra
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: bern vs bra
A purely visual mix-up. bern (\ˈbɛrn\) and bra (\ˈbɹɑ\) 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 70455, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
bern is recorded at frequency rank #26,641, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈbɛrn\. bra is at rank #43,814, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈbɹɑ\.
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 70455, this pair ranks #51,262 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of bern vs bra
Shared letters: br. Private to "bern": en. Private to "bra": a.
"bern" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "bra" · 3 letters · shape CCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- bern ← bbern · benr · bernn · berrn · bren · ebrn
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "bern" and "bra" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "bern" or "bra" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "bern" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "bra" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #51,262 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "bern" and "bra" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bra vs bury". 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 #51,262 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.