bravsbusWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#43,814
“bra” frequency rank
#1,508
“bus” frequency rank
45322
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bra bus
Definition Soutien-gorge. Véhicule de transport en commun routier pouvant transporter plusieurs dizaines de passagers.

Where the eye mixes bra and bus

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
bra
3 ch
bus

Visual trap between bra and bus

A purely visual mix-up. bra (\ˈbɹɑ\) and bus (\bys\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45322, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bra is recorded at frequency rank #43,814, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈbɹɑ\. bus is at rank #1,508, tagged as anoun, pronounced \bys\.

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 45322, this pair ranks #203,626 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of bra vs bus

Shared letters: b. Private to "bra": ar. Private to "bus": su.

"bra" · 3 letters · shape CCV  ·  "bus" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "bra" for "bus" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ˈbɹɑ\ versus \bys\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "bra" vs "bus" - which ranks higher?
"bus" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,508 in our French list, against #43,814 for "bra". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "bra" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #203,626 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bra" and "bus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bra vs bury". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #203,626 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