bordéevsbordjTell them apart

Which to use

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

#18,136
“bordée” frequency rank
#40,630
“bordj” frequency rank
58766
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bordée bordj
Definition Ligne de canons rangés de chaque bord d’un ancien navire. Maison solidement construite.

Where the eye mixes bordée and bordj

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. bordée runs 6 letters (CVCCVV) against bordj's 5 (CVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
bordée
5 ch
bordj

Why the eye confuses bordée with bordj

A purely visual mix-up. bordée (\bɔʁ.de\) and bordj (\bɔʁdʒ\) 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 58766, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bordée is recorded at frequency rank #18,136, classified as anoun, pronounced \bɔʁ.de\. bordj is at rank #40,630, tagged as anoun, pronounced \bɔʁdʒ\.

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 58766, this pair ranks #107,057 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of bordée vs bordj

Shared letters: bdor. Private to "bordée": eé. Private to "bordj": j.

"bordée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "bordj" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bordj ← bbordj · bodrj · borddj · bordjj · borjd · borrdj · brodj · obrdj

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "bordée" and "bordj" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\bɔʁ.de\ versus \bɔʁdʒ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "bordée" vs "bordj" - which ranks higher?
"bordée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,136 in our French list, against #40,630 for "bordj". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "bordée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bordj" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #107,057 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bordée" and "bordj" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bordés vs bordj". 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 #107,057 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