Which to use
“brûlées” is an adjective and “brûlent” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #20,942
- “brûlées” frequency rank
- #18,140
- “brûlent” frequency rank
- 39082
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | brûlées | brûlent |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin pluriel de brûlé. | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent du verbe brûler. |
Where the eye mixes brûlées and brûlent
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. brûlées (CCVCVVC) and brûlent (CCVCVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between brûlées and brûlent
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: brûlées is \bʁy.le\ while brûlent is \bʁyl\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39082, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
brûlées is recorded at frequency rank #20,942, classified as anadj, pronounced \bʁy.le\. brûlent is at rank #18,140, tagged as averb, pronounced \bʁyl\.
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 39082, this pair ranks #250,640 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of brûlées vs brûlent
Shared letters: belrû. Private to "brûlées": sé. Private to "brûlent": nt.
"brûlées" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVVC · "brûlent" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCC
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "brûlées" for "brûlent" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "brûlées" or "brûlent" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "brûlées" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "brûlent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #250,640 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "brûlées" and "brûlent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "brûlants vs brûlent". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #250,640 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.