bis vs by, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“bis” is an adjective and “by” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#7,530
“bis” frequency rank: #2,462
“by” frequency rank: 9992
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	bis	by
Definition	Qui est d’un gris beige foncé #766F64 ou clair #F1E2BE.	Fossé qui traverse un étang, aboutissant à sa bonde.

Same sound, different letters: bis vs by

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 1 letter.

3 ch

bis

2 ch

Ear matches; page differs - bis and by

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: bis and by carry the same recorded pronunciation, \bi\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other anoun, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9992, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bis is recorded at frequency rank #7,530, classified as anadj, pronounced \bi\. by is at rank #2,462, tagged as anoun, pronounced \bi\.

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 9992, this pair ranks #414,633 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of bis vs by

Shared letters: b. Private to "bis": is. Private to "by": y.

"bis" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "by" · 2 letters · shape CV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "bis" for "by" ever safe?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "bis" is an adjective and "by" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Frequency check: "bis" vs "by" - which ranks higher?

"by" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,462 in our French list, against #7,530 for "bis". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

Full dictionary entry for "bis" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "by" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #414,633 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"bis" and "by" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ber vs bis". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #414,633 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.