brûléesvsbrûlezWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: brûlées is a adjective, brûlez is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“brûlées” is an adjective and “brûlez” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#20,942
“brûlées” frequency rank
#35,408
“brûlez” frequency rank
56350
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature brûlées brûlez
Definition Féminin pluriel de brûlé. Deuxième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent du verbe brûler.

Same sound, different letters: brûlées vs brûlez

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. brûlées runs 7 letters (CCVCVVC) against brûlez's 6 (CCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
brûlées
6 ch
brûlez

Ear matches; page differs - brûlées and brûlez

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: brûlées and brûlez carry the same recorded pronunciation, \bʁy.le\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56350, 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\. brûlez is at rank #35,408, tagged as averb, pronounced \bʁy.le\.

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 56350, this pair ranks #121,647 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of brûlées vs brûlez

Shared letters: belrû. Private to "brûlées": sé. Private to "brûlez": z.

"brûlées" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVVC  ·  "brûlez" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "brûlées" for "brûlez" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "brûlées" is an adjective and "brûlez" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "brûlées" or "brûlez"?
"brûlées" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,942 in our French list, against #35,408 for "brûlez". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

"brûlées" and "brûlez" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "brûlées" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "brûlez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #121,647 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "brûlées" and "brûlez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "brûlez vs Brunei". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #121,647 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