branvsbreTell them apart

Which to use

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

#34,907
“bran” frequency rank
#40,639
“bre” frequency rank
75546
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bran bre
Definition Partie la plus grossière du son de céréale. Mont, montagne.

Where the eye mixes bran and bre

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
bran
3 ch
bre

Visual trap between bran and bre

A purely visual mix-up. bran (\bʁɑ̃\) and bre (\breː\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 75546, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bran is recorded at frequency rank #34,907, classified as anoun, pronounced \bʁɑ̃\. bre is at rank #40,639, tagged as anoun, pronounced \breː\.

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 75546, this pair ranks #33,737 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of bran vs bre

Shared letters: br. Private to "bran": an. Private to "bre": e.

"bran" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "bre" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • branbarn · bbran · brann · brna · brran · rban

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "bran" for "bre" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\bʁɑ̃\ versus \breː\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "bran" or "bre"?
"bran" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #34,907 in our French list, against #40,639 for "bre". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "bran" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #33,737 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bran" and "bre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bre vs bury". 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 #33,737 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