branléevsbranlerTell them apart

Quick tell: branlée is a noun, branler is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“branlée” is a noun and “branler” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#39,191
“branlée” frequency rank
#15,316
“branler” frequency rank
54507
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature branlée branler
Definition Sonnerie de cloche. Mettre en branle ; mettre en mouvement ; agiter.

Same sound, different letters: branlée vs branler

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. branlée (CCVCCVV) and branler (CCVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
branlée
7 ch
branler

Ear matches; page differs - branlée and branler

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: branlée and branler carry the same recorded pronunciation, \bʁɑ̃.le\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54507, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

branlée is recorded at frequency rank #39,191, classified as anoun, pronounced \bʁɑ̃.le\. branler is at rank #15,316, tagged as averb, pronounced \bʁɑ̃.le\.

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 54507, this pair ranks #133,539 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of branlée vs branler

Shared letters: abelnr. Private to "branlée": é. Private to "branler": -.

"branlée" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVV  ·  "branler" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • branler ← barnler · bbranler · bralner · branelr · branlerr · branller · branlre · brannler

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "branlée" for "branler" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "branlée" is a noun and "branler" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "branlée" or "branler"?
"branler" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,316 in our French list, against #39,191 for "branlée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "branlée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "branler" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #133,539 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "branlée" and "branler" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "branlée vs branles". 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 #133,539 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