brûlantvsbruyantsWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#14,617
“brûlant” frequency rank
#25,575
“bruyants” frequency rank
40192
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature brûlant bruyants
Definition Qui est trop chaud pour être supporté ; qui est extrêmement chaud au toucher. Masculin pluriel de bruyant.

Where the eye mixes brûlant and bruyants

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. brûlant runs 7 letters (CCVCVCC) against bruyants's 8 (CCVVVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
brûlant
8 ch
bruyants

Visual trap between brûlant and bruyants

A purely visual mix-up. brûlant (\bʁy.lɑ̃\) and bruyants (\bʁɥi.jɑ̃\) 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 40192, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

brûlant is recorded at frequency rank #14,617, classified as anadj, pronounced \bʁy.lɑ̃\. bruyants is at rank #25,575, tagged as anadj, pronounced \bʁɥi.jɑ̃\.

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 40192, this pair ranks #242,332 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of brûlant vs bruyants

Shared letters: abnrt. Private to "brûlant": lû. Private to "bruyants": suy.

"brûlant" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCC  ·  "bruyants" · 8 letters · shape CCVVVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bruyants ← bbruyants · brruyants · bruaynts · bruyannts · bruyanst · bruyantss · bruyantts · bruyatns

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "brûlant" for "bruyants" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\bʁy.lɑ̃\ versus \bʁɥi.jɑ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "brûlant" or "bruyants"?
"brûlant" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,617 in our French list, against #25,575 for "bruyants". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "brûlant" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bruyants" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #242,332 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "brûlant" and "bruyants" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "brûlantes vs bruyants". 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 #242,332 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