brisavsbuisWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#46,036
“brisa” frequency rank
#28,864
“buis” frequency rank
74900
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature brisa buis
Definition Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple du verbe briser. Genre de la famille des Buxacées comprenant l’espèce Buxus sempervirens, arbrisseau sempervirent, dont le bois, jaunâtre et très dur, et surtout celui de sa racine sont d’un grand usage dans la tabletterie. → voir Buxus

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set brisa and buis apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
brisa
4 ch
buis

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: brisa is \bʁi.za\ while buis is \bɥi\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 74900, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

brisa is recorded at frequency rank #46,036, classified as averb, pronounced \bʁi.za\. buis is at rank #28,864, tagged as anoun, pronounced \bɥi\.

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 74900, this pair ranks #35,686 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of brisa vs buis

Shared letters: bis. Private to "brisa": ar. Private to "buis": u.

"brisa" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "buis" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • brisabbrisa · birsa · brias · brissa · brrisa · brsia · rbisa
  • buisbbuis · bius · buiss · busi · ubis

Frequency comparison

brisa#46,036
buis#28,864

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "brisa" and "buis" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "brisa" is a verb and "buis" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "brisa" or "buis"?
"buis" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,864 in our French list, against #46,036 for "brisa". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering brisa vs buis

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “brisa”; for a noun, it's “buis”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “brisa” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list