bourdesvsboursesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#49,528
“bourdes” frequency rank
#7,936
“bourses” frequency rank
57464
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bourdes bourses
Definition Pluriel de bourde. Pluriel de bourse.

Where the eye mixes bourdes and bourses

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

7 ch
bourdes
7 ch
bourses

Look-alike desk: bourdes vs bourses

A purely visual mix-up. bourdes (\buʁd\) and bourses (\buʁs\) 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 a single letter - d in “bourdes” becomes s in “bourses”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57464, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bourdes is recorded at frequency rank #49,528, classified as anoun, pronounced \buʁd\. bourses is at rank #7,936, tagged as anoun, pronounced \buʁs\.

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 57464, this pair ranks #114,879 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of bourdes vs bourses

Shared letters: beorsu. Private to "bourdes": d. Private to "bourses": -.

"bourdes" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC  ·  "bourses" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bourdesbbourdes · borudes · boudres · bourddes · bourdess · bourdse · boureds · bourrdes
  • boursesbbourses · boruses · bouress · bourrses · boursess · boursses · bousres · buorses

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "bourdes" and "bourses" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\buʁd\ versus \buʁs\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "bourdes" vs "bourses" - which ranks higher?
"bourses" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,936 in our French list, against #49,528 for "bourdes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "bourdes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bourses" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #114,879 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bourdes" and "bourses" 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 #114,879 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