buisvsburyWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#28,864
“buis” frequency rank
#49,536
“bury” frequency rank
78400
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature buis bury
Definition 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 Enterrer, enfouir.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set buis and bury apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch
buis
4 ch
bury

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: buis is \bɥi\ while bury is \ˈbɛɹ.i\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 78400, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

buis is recorded at frequency rank #28,864, classified as anoun, pronounced \bɥi\. bury is at rank #49,536, tagged as averb, pronounced \ˈbɛɹ.i\.

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 78400, this pair ranks #25,852 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of buis vs bury

Shared letters: bu. Private to "buis": is. Private to "bury": ry.

"buis" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "bury" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • buisbbuis · bius · buiss · busi · ubis
  • burybbury · bruy · burry · buryy · buyr · ubry

Frequency comparison

buis#28,864
bury#49,536

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "buis" and "bury" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "buis" is a noun and "bury" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "buis" or "bury"?
"buis" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,864 in our French list, against #49,536 for "bury". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering buis vs bury

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “buis”; for a verb, it's “bury”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “buis” 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