bombardervsbombardésWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: bombarder is a verb, bombardés is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“bombarder” is a verb and “bombardés” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#21,546
“bombarder” frequency rank
#44,903
“bombardés” frequency rank
66449
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bombarder bombardés
Definition Attaquer une ville, une place, une position militaire avec de l’artillerie terrestre, maritime ou, larguer des bombes avec un aéronef. Masculin pluriel de bombardé.

Same sound, different letters: bombarder vs bombardés

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. bombarder and bombardés follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

9 ch
bombarder
9 ch
bombardés

Same sound, different spelling - bombarder / bombardés

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: bombarder and bombardés carry the same recorded pronunciation, \bɔ̃.baʁ.de\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is averb, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66449, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bombarder is recorded at frequency rank #21,546, classified as averb, pronounced \bɔ̃.baʁ.de\. bombardés is at rank #44,903, tagged as anadj, pronounced \bɔ̃.baʁ.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 66449, this pair ranks #67,781 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of bombarder vs bombardés

Shared letters: abdmor. Private to "bombarder": e. Private to "bombardés": sé.

"bombarder" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC  ·  "bombardés" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bombarder ← bbombarder · bmobarder · bobmarder · bomabrder · bombadrer · bombardder · bombarderr · bombardre

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "bombarder" and "bombardés" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "bombarder" is a verb and "bombardés" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "bombarder" or "bombardés" show up more?
"bombarder" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,546 in our French list, against #44,903 for "bombardés". 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 "bombarder" / "bombardés". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "bombarder" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bombardés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #67,781 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bombarder" and "bombardés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bombardée vs bombardés". 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 #67,781 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