A very small 'boule' is a 'bille' used in flipper. Yes, "boule" is something that you do not throw using your mere hands! Well done, Jean-Michel I think a "boule" isn't only heavier but also harder than a "balle". I mean those which are used in sports or in games. But, unlike "balle" or "ballon", "boule" isn't only used in sports or game contexts.
I am not sure this hasn't been said before, but the main difference I see between a boule on the one hand and a balle or a ballon on the other hand is a balle or a ballon are filled with gas , whereas a boule isn't.
As a consequence of what I said in my former post, you can bounce a balle or a ballon, not a boule OK, then let's say a balle and a ballon are hollow, whereas a boule is solid. Is this OK with everybody? Yes, they are! What else could they be filled with? Jabote said:. Well, come to think of it, the 'balle de golf' seems to be one exception to the general rule I edicted I am pleased!!!!
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Word lists shared by our community of dictionary fans. A balle or ballon is usually filled with air or a gas. A ballon is generally bigger than a balle. The demarcation seems to be somewhere between balle de tennis and ballon de football.
Apparently there is a tendency to translate the English word ball as balle. This could explain why a golf ball is referred to as a balle de golf even though technically it should be a boule.
I researched this a bit more closely, and here is what I found:. It's the same word in French, just like in Italian a palazzo isn't necessarily a palace but can also be a new government building or apartment complex, or in German Ersatz is a neutral word that can be used for any kind of replacement.
Conversely, while a large number of languages in the world have adopted the English word computer , English is the only language in which it can be used in its original sense of a person who computes something. The general principle is that when a language adopts a foreign word, it's very often with a much more specific meaning than it has in the original language.
If it is not clear from context that ballon refers to a balloon, you can use a more specific word such as:. While distinguishing balloons from balls takes more effort in French than in English, distinguishing the kind of balloon normally used by children from aeronautic balloons takes more effort in English than in French. There doesn't seem to be a really good English translation for ballon de baudruche. Or is it more like a rubber balloon toy that you can bang around quite hard without it popping?
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