Which to use
“boulet” is a noun and “brûlez” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #11,724
- “boulet” frequency rank
- #35,408
- “brûlez” frequency rank
- 47132
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | boulet | brûlez |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Boule de pierre ou de métal fondu, de différentes grosseurs, dont on chargeait les canons. | Deuxième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent du verbe brûler. |
Where the eye mixes boulet and brûlez
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. boulet (CVVCVC) and brûlez (CCVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: boulet vs brûlez
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: boulet is \bu.lɛ\ while brûlez is \bʁy.le\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47132, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
boulet is recorded at frequency rank #11,724, classified as anoun, pronounced \bu.lɛ\. brûlez is at rank #35,408, tagged as averb, pronounced \bʁy.le\.
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 47132, this pair ranks #189,316 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of boulet vs brûlez
Shared letters: bel. Private to "boulet": otu. Private to "brûlez": rzû.
"boulet" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "brûlez" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- boulet ← bboulet · boluet · bouelt · boulett · boullet · boulte · buolet · obulet
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "boulet" for "brûlez" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "boulet" or "brûlez" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "boulet" and "brûlez" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "boulet" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "brûlez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #189,316 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "boulet" and "brûlez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "brûlez vs Brunei". 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 #189,316 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.