bonnevsbonusConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#167
“bonne” frequency rank
#4,047
“bonus” frequency rank
4214
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bonne bonus
Definition Servante dans une maison bourgeoise, dans un hôtel, etc., fille chargée de soigner un enfant. Prime.

Where the eye mixes bonne and bonus

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

5 ch
bonne
5 ch
bonus

Visual trap between bonne and bonus

A purely visual mix-up. bonne (\bɔn\) and bonus (\bɔ.nys\) 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 4214, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bonne is recorded at frequency rank #167, classified as anoun, pronounced \bɔn\. bonus is at rank #4,047, tagged as anoun, pronounced \bɔ.nys\.

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 4214, this pair ranks #432,170 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of bonne vs bonus

Shared letters: bno. Private to "bonne": e. Private to "bonus": su.

"bonne" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "bonus" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bonnebbonne · bnone · bonen · obnne
  • bonusbbonus · bnous · bonnus · bonsu · bonuss · bouns · obnus

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "bonne" and "bonus" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\bɔn\ versus \bɔ.nys\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "bonne" vs "bonus" - which ranks higher?
"bonne" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #167 in our French list, against #4,047 for "bonus". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "bonne" and "bonus" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "bonne" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bonus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #432,170 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bonne" and "bonus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "boers vs bonus". 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 #432,170 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