Which to use
“bourg” and “bourgs” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #6,685
- “bourg” frequency rank
- #28,078
- “bourgs” frequency rank
- 34763
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bourg | bourgs |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Petite ville ou grand village ; lieu de rendez-vous lors des marchés hebdomadaires. | Pluriel de bourg. |
Same sound, different letters: bourg vs bourgs
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters.
Same sound, different spelling - bourg / bourgs
This is the hard kind. bourg and bourgs are pronounced identically (\buʁ\) 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) - “bourg” sits inside “bourgs”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34763, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
bourg is recorded at frequency rank #6,685, classified as anoun, pronounced \buʁ\. bourgs is at rank #28,078, tagged as anoun, pronounced \buʁ\.
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 34763, this pair ranks #281,566 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of bourg vs bourgs
Shared letters: bgoru. Private to "bourg": -. Private to "bourgs": s.
"bourg" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "bourgs" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "bourg" for "bourgs" ever safe?
Frequency check: "bourg" vs "bourgs" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "bourg" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "bourgs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #281,566 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "bourg" and "bourgs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bourdes vs bourgs". 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 #281,566 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.