boulangerievsboulangersWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: boulangerie is a noun, boulangers is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#10,121
“boulangerie” frequency rank
#30,920
“boulangers” frequency rank
41041
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature boulangerie boulangers
Definition Lieu où est fabriqué et vendu le pain; souvent, des viennoiseries y sont également confectionnées et vendues. Masculin pluriel de boulanger.

Where the eye mixes boulangerie and boulangers

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. boulangerie runs 11 letters (CVVCVCCVCVV) against boulangers's 10 (CVVCVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

11 ch
boulangerie
10 ch
boulangers

Visual trap between boulangerie and boulangers

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: boulangerie is \bu.lɑ̃ʒ.ʁi\ while boulangers is \bu.lɑ̃.ʒe\. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41041, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

boulangerie is recorded at frequency rank #10,121, classified as anoun, pronounced \bu.lɑ̃ʒ.ʁi\. boulangers is at rank #30,920, tagged as anadj, pronounced \bu.lɑ̃.ʒe\.

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 41041, this pair ranks #235,995 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of boulangerie vs boulangers

Shared letters: abeglnoru. Private to "boulangerie": i. Private to "boulangers": s.

"boulangerie" · 11 letters · shape CVVCVCCVCVV  ·  "boulangers" · 10 letters · shape CVVCVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • boulangerie ← bboulangerie · boluangerie · boualngerie · boulagnerie · boulanegrie · boulangeire · boulangerei · boulangerrie
  • boulangers ← bboulangers · boluangers · boualngers · boulagners · boulanegrs · boulangerrs · boulangerss · boulangesr

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "boulangerie" for "boulangers" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "boulangerie" is a noun and "boulangers" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "boulangerie" or "boulangers"?
"boulangerie" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,121 in our French list, against #30,920 for "boulangers". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "boulangerie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "boulangers" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #235,995 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "boulangerie" and "boulangers" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "boulangère vs boulangers". 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 #235,995 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