bourréevsbourréesWhat's the difference?

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

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.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set bourrée and bourrées apart are highlighted. They share 7 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

7 ch
bourrée
8 ch
bourrées

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

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

Frequency comparison

bourrée#18,416
bourrées#44,336

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "bourrée" and "bourrées" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "bourrée" is a noun and "bourrées" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "bourrée" or "bourrées"?
"bourrée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,416 in our French list, against #44,336 for "bourrées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering bourrée vs bourrées

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “bourrée”; for an adjective, it's “bourrées”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “bourrée” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list