balles

Balles is the plural form of balle in French. The noun balle has two main senses: a small spherical object used in games or sports, and a bullet or projectile fired from a firearm. Accordingly, the plural balles covers both senses, with meaning determined by context.

In sports and games, balles refers to small spheres such as tennis balls or table tennis balls. For larger, inflated spheres, the French term vaker used is ballon rather than balle, and the plural would be ballons in many cases. The exact choice of term can depend on regional usage and the specific sport.

In firearms terminology, balles designates bullets or projectiles. The plural appears in phrases such as balles réelles (live ammunition) and balles traçantes (tracer bullets). The word can also appear in legal or crime reporting to indicate shooting incidents, where “balles” is translated as “bullets.”

In translation and linguistics, balles is typically rendered as either “balls” or “bullets” depending on sense. When referring to sport, it translates to balls, while in gun terminology it translates to bullets. The distinction is important for accurate interpretation in French-language texts and their English translations.