Which to use
“brigade” and “brigades” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,430
- “brigade” frequency rank
- #16,081
- “brigades” frequency rank
- 21511
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | brigade | brigades |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Corps de troupes composé de plusieurs bataillons, escadrons ou régiments, sous le commandement d’un officier général. | Pluriel de brigade. |
Same sound, different letters: brigade vs brigades
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. brigade runs 7 letters (CCVCVCV) against brigades's 8 (CCVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Same sound, different spelling - brigade / brigades
This is the hard kind. brigade and brigades are pronounced identically (\bʁi.ɡad\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “brigade” sits inside “brigades”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21511, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
brigade is recorded at frequency rank #5,430, classified as anoun, pronounced \bʁi.ɡad\. brigades is at rank #16,081, tagged as anoun, pronounced \bʁi.ɡad\.
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 21511, this pair ranks #362,791 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of brigade vs brigades
Shared letters: abdegir. Private to "brigade": -. Private to "brigades": s.
"brigade" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCV · "brigades" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "brigade" for "brigades" ever safe?
Frequency check: "brigade" vs "brigades" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
"brigade" and "brigades" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "brigade" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "brigades" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #362,791 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "brigade" and "brigades" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "brigades vs brimades". 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 #362,791 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.