Which to use
“border” is a verb and “bordés” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #23,469
- “border” frequency rank
- #48,950
- “bordés” frequency rank
- 72419
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | border | bordés |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Garnir sur le bord d’un ruban, d’un galon, d’un morceau d’étoffe, de toile, etc. | Masculin pluriel de bordé. |
Same sound, different letters: border vs bordés
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters.
Same sound, different spelling - border / bordés
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: border and bordés carry the same recorded pronunciation, \bɔʁ.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 72419, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
border is recorded at frequency rank #23,469, classified as averb, pronounced \bɔʁ.de\. bordés is at rank #48,950, 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 72419, this pair ranks #44,076 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of border vs bordés
Shared letters: bdor. Private to "border": e. Private to "bordés": sé.
"border" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "bordés" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- border ← bborder · bodrer · bordder · borderr · bordre · boredr · borrder · obrder
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "border" for "bordés" ever safe?
Frequency check: "border" vs "bordés" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
"border" and "bordés" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "border" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "bordés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #44,076 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "border" and "bordés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bordés vs bourdes". 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 #44,076 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.