Which to use
“brillait” and “brûlait” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #39,681
- “brillait” frequency rank
- #32,716
- “brûlait” frequency rank
- 72397
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | brillait | brûlait |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif imparfait du verbe briller. | Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif imparfait du verbe brûler. |
Where the eye mixes brillait and brûlait
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. brillait runs 8 letters (CCVCCVVC) against brûlait's 7 (CCVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between brillait and brûlait
A purely visual mix-up. brillait (\bʁi.jɛ\) and brûlait (\bʁy.lɛ\) 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 72397, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
brillait is recorded at frequency rank #39,681, classified as averb, pronounced \bʁi.jɛ\. brûlait is at rank #32,716, tagged as averb, pronounced \bʁy.lɛ\.
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 72397, this pair ranks #44,139 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of brillait vs brûlait
Shared letters: abilrt. Private to "brillait": -. Private to "brûlait": û.
"brillait" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCVVC · "brûlait" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- brillait ← bbrillait · birllait · brilait · brilalit · brillaitt · brillati · brilliat · brlilait
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "brillait" and "brûlait" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "brillait" vs "brûlait" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "brillait" and "brûlait" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "brillait" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "brûlait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #44,139 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "brillait" and "brûlait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "brûlait vs brûlants". 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 #44,139 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.