blessévsbleueWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: blessé is a adjective, bleue is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#2,113
“blessé” frequency rank
#4,046
“bleue” frequency rank
6159
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature blessé bleue
Definition Qui a subi une ou des blessures. Nom donné à l’absinthe.

Where the eye mixes blessé and bleue

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

6 ch
blessé
5 ch
bleue

Why the eye confuses blessé with bleue

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: blessé is \blɛ.se\ while bleue is \blø\. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6159, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

blessé is recorded at frequency rank #2,113, classified as anadj, pronounced \blɛ.se\. bleue is at rank #4,046, tagged as anoun, pronounced \blø\.

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 6159, this pair ranks #427,016 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of blessé vs bleue

Shared letters: bel. Private to "blessé": . Private to "bleue": u.

"blessé" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV  ·  "bleue" · 5 letters · shape CCVVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bleuebbleue · belue · bleeu · blleue · bluee · lbeue

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "blessé" for "bleue" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "blessé" is an adjective and "bleue" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "blessé" vs "bleue" - which ranks higher?
"blessé" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,113 in our French list, against #4,046 for "bleue". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "blessé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bleue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #427,016 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "blessé" and "bleue" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bleue vs bue". 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 #427,016 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