Which to use
“bourrée” is a noun and “bourrées” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #18,416
- “bourrée” frequency rank
- #44,336
- “bourrées” frequency rank
- 62752
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bourrée | bourrées |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Sorte de fagot de menues branches, gros et court, lié au milieu avec une seule hart ^([1]) ^([2]). | Féminin pluriel de bourré. |
Same sound, different letters: bourrée vs bourrées
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. bourrée runs 7 letters (CVVCCVV) against bourrées's 8 (CVVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Ear matches; page differs - bourrée and bourrées
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: bourrée and bourrées carry the same recorded pronunciation, \bu.ʁe\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “bourrée” sits inside “bourrées”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62752, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
bourrée is recorded at frequency rank #18,416, classified as anoun, pronounced \bu.ʁe\. bourrées is at rank #44,336, tagged as anadj, pronounced \bu.ʁe\.
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 62752, this pair ranks #85,479 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of bourrée vs bourrées
Shared letters: beorué. Private to "bourrée": -. Private to "bourrées": s.
"bourrée" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVV · "bourrées" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "bourrée" and "bourrées" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "bourrée" vs "bourrées" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
"bourrée" and "bourrées" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "bourrée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "bourrées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #85,479 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "bourrée" and "bourrées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bourrées vs bourrelets". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #85,479 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.