Ballad - ballade
Be careful not to confuse the words ballad and ballade - note the final 'e' on ballade. The two words are pronounced differently and have rather different sets of meanings.
Ballad is pronounced with the stress on the first syllable, which has the '-a' of 'carry' and 'has', while the second vowel is a schwa - BAL-erd, IPA: /'bæ ləd/, whereas ballade is pronounced with the stress on the second syllable which has the long '-a-' of 'hard', i.e., ba-LAHD, IPA: /bæ 'lɑːd/.
- Beware also of the risk of confusion with the surname Ballard. This is pronounced with the stress on the first syllable, which is the same as that of ballad, while the second syllable has the vowel of the second syllable of ballade, without the stress - IPA: /ˈbæl ɑːrd/. This is well known as the name of the British writer J. G. Ballard (James Graham, 1930–2009).
Both ballad and ballade are used in the context of poetry and in the context of music, and have different meanings depending on the context of their use.
In the context of poetry - a ballad is a long narrative poem usually in four-line stanzas (see also ballad stanza), whereas a ballade is a (relatively) short poem of three eight- or ten-line stanzas and an envoi (i.e., a final dedicatory or explanatory stanza) usually of four lines.
In the context of music - a ballad is either a narrative song with a refrain or a slow, sentimental song, whereas a ballade is an instrumental piece (usually for the piano) which is based on or recalls a popular (usually heroic) narrative. (Chopin's Ballades - for the piano - are particularly well-known.)
The two words ballad and ballade share a common etymology. They both come from the Old Provençal balada, a song which accompanies a dance, which in turn comes from the Late Latin ballare, to dance.
