Which to use
“bêtes” and “buses” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,638
- “bêtes” frequency rank
- #47,198
- “buses” frequency rank
- 52836
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bêtes | buses |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de bête. | Pluriel de buse. |
Where the eye mixes bêtes and buses
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. bêtes and buses follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: bêtes vs buses
A purely visual mix-up. bêtes (\bɛt\) and buses (\byz\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52836, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
bêtes is recorded at frequency rank #5,638, classified as anoun, pronounced \bɛt\. buses is at rank #47,198, tagged as anoun, pronounced \byz\.
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 52836, this pair ranks #144,923 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of bêtes vs buses
Shared letters: bes. Private to "bêtes": tê. Private to "buses": u.
"bêtes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "buses" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- buses ← bbuses · bsues · buess · busess · busses · ubses
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "bêtes" for "buses" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "bêtes" or "buses" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "bêtes" and "buses" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "bêtes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "buses" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #144,923 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "bêtes" and "buses" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "busan vs buses". 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 #144,923 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.