branvsbrinsWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#34,907
“bran” frequency rank
#28,863
“brins” frequency rank
63770
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bran brins
Definition Partie la plus grossière du son de céréale. Pluriel de brin.

Where the eye mixes bran and brins

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. bran runs 4 letters (CCVC) against brins's 5 (CCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
bran
5 ch
brins

Look-alike desk: bran vs brins

A purely visual mix-up. bran (\bʁɑ̃\) and brins (\bʁɛ̃\) 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 63770, 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\. brins is at rank #28,863, tagged as anoun, pronounced \bʁɛ̃\.

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 63770, this pair ranks #80,299 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of bran vs brins

Shared letters: bnr. Private to "bran": a. Private to "brins": is.

"bran" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "brins" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bran ← barn · bbran · brann · brna · brran · rban
  • brins ← bbrins · birns · brinns · brinss · brisn · brnis · brrins · rbins

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "bran" for "brins" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\bʁɑ̃\ versus \bʁɛ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "bran" or "brins"?
"brins" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,863 in our French list, against #34,907 for "bran". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "bran" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "brins" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #80,299 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bran" and "brins" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bran vs bread". 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 #80,299 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