bonsvsboostTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#933
“bons” frequency rank
#20,377
“boost” frequency rank
21310
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bons boost
Definition Masculin pluriel de bon. Augmentation importante mais de durée limitée des capacités d'un personnage ou d'un véhicule dans un jeu vidéo.

Where the eye mixes bons and boost

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

4 ch
bons
5 ch
boost

Why the eye confuses bons with boost

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: bons is \bɔ̃\ while boost is \bust\. 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 21310, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bons is recorded at frequency rank #933, classified as anadj, pronounced \bɔ̃\. boost is at rank #20,377, tagged as anoun, pronounced \bust\.

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 21310, this pair ranks #363,831 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of bons vs boost

Shared letters: bos. Private to "bons": n. Private to "boost": t.

"bons" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "boost" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bonsbbons · bnos · bonns · bonss · bosn · obns
  • boostbboost · boosst · boostt · bosot · bost · obost

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "bons" and "boost" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "bons" is an adjective and "boost" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "bons" or "boost" show up more?
"bons" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #933 in our French list, against #20,377 for "boost". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "bons" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "boost" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #363,831 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bons" and "boost" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "boloss vs boost". 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 #363,831 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