Which to use
“bouffée” and “bouffées” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #19,763
- “bouffée” frequency rank
- #36,280
- “bouffées” frequency rank
- 56043
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bouffée | bouffées |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Souffle de l’haleine. | Pluriel de bouffée. |
Same sound, different letters: bouffée vs bouffées
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. bouffée runs 7 letters (CVVCCVV) against bouffées's 8 (CVVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Ear matches; page differs - bouffée and bouffées
This is the hard kind. bouffée and bouffées are pronounced identically (\bu.fe\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “bouffée” sits inside “bouffées”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56043, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
bouffée is recorded at frequency rank #19,763, classified as anoun, pronounced \bu.fe\. bouffées is at rank #36,280, tagged as anoun, pronounced \bu.fe\.
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 56043, this pair ranks #123,601 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of bouffée vs bouffées
Shared letters: befoué. Private to "bouffée": -. Private to "bouffées": s.
"bouffée" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVV · "bouffées" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "bouffée" for "bouffées" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "bouffée" or "bouffées" show up more?
Useful next steps
You've separated the homophone pair "bouffée" / "bouffées". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "bouffée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "bouffées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #123,601 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "bouffée" and "bouffées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bouffées vs buffles". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #123,601 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.