boiséesvsbordéesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#33,146
“boisées” frequency rank
#33,148
“bordées” frequency rank
66294
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature boisées bordées
Definition Féminin pluriel de boisé. Féminin pluriel de bordé.

Where the eye mixes boisées and bordées

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. boisées (CVVCVVC) and bordées (CVCCVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
boisées
7 ch
bordées

Why the eye confuses boisées with bordées

A purely visual mix-up. boisées (\bwɑ.ze\) and bordées (\bɔʁ.de\) 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 66294, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

boisées is recorded at frequency rank #33,146, classified as anadj, pronounced \bwɑ.ze\. bordées is at rank #33,148, tagged as anadj, pronounced \bɔʁ.de\.

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 66294, this pair ranks #68,441 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of boisées vs bordées

Shared letters: beosé. Private to "boisées": i. Private to "bordées": dr.

"boisées" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVVC  ·  "bordées" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "boisées" for "bordées" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\bwɑ.ze\ versus \bɔʁ.de\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "boisées" or "bordées"?
"boisées" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33,146 in our French list, against #33,148 for "bordées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "boisées" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bordées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #68,441 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "boisées" and "bordées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bordées vs bourdes". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #68,441 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