brisvsbusWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#21,875
“bris” frequency rank
#1,508
“bus” frequency rank
23383
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bris bus
Definition Rupture faite, le plus souvent avec violence, d’un scellé, d’une porte fermée, d’une clôture. Véhicule de transport en commun routier pouvant transporter plusieurs dizaines de passagers.

Where the eye mixes bris and bus

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

4 ch
bris
3 ch
bus

Why the eye confuses bris with bus

A purely visual mix-up. bris (\bʁi\) and bus (\bys\) 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 23383, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bris is recorded at frequency rank #21,875, classified as anoun, pronounced \bʁi\. bus is at rank #1,508, tagged as anoun, pronounced \bys\.

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 23383, this pair ranks #352,803 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of bris vs bus

Shared letters: bs. Private to "bris": ir. Private to "bus": u.

"bris" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "bus" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • brisbbris · birs · briss · brris · brsi · rbis

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "bris" for "bus" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\bʁi\ versus \bys\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "bris" vs "bus" - which ranks higher?
"bus" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,508 in our French list, against #21,875 for "bris". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "bris" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #352,803 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bris" and "bus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Bram vs bris". 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 #352,803 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