bondéevsbordéesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#39,674
“bondée” frequency rank
#33,148
“bordées” frequency rank
72822
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bondée bordées
Definition Féminin singulier de bondé. Féminin pluriel de bordé.

Where the eye mixes bondée and bordées

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. bondée runs 6 letters (CVCCVV) against bordées's 7 (CVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
bondée
7 ch
bordées

Look-alike desk: bondée vs bordées

A purely visual mix-up. bondée (\bɔ̃.de\) 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 differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72822, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bondée is recorded at frequency rank #39,674, classified as anadj, pronounced \bɔ̃.de\. 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 72822, this pair ranks #42,643 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of bondée vs bordées

Shared letters: bdeoé. Private to "bondée": n. Private to "bordées": rs.

"bondée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "bordées" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "bondée" for "bordées" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\bɔ̃.de\ versus \bɔʁ.de\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "bondée" or "bordées" show up more?
"bordées" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33,148 in our French list, against #39,674 for "bondée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "bondée" 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 #42,643 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bondée" and "bordées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bondée vs bordés". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #42,643 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