r
\ɛʁ\
The verdict
“r” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #637) as a character. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #637
- frequency rank, French
- 507,453
- “R” headwords
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Dix-huitième lettre et quatorzième consonne de l’alphabet (minuscule).
Corpus desk
Index FR-r · r · French
r · rank #637 · 0 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-CORE #637
- LEN-SHORT 1 letters
- VOW-0 0 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 507,453
- PHOTO-FINISH qualité
Nearest frequency peer: qualité (-1 rank slots)
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Frequency neighbourhood for “r”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- perdu
perdu
99,367 corpus weight
- politiques
politiques
99,366 corpus weight
- qualité
qualité
99,365 corpus weight
- r
r
99,364 corpus weight
- scène
scène
99,362 corpus weight
- sinon
sinon
99,361 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “r” sits against the nearest ranked French headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | r |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Character |
| IPA | \ɛʁ\ |
| Letters | 1 |
| Frequency rank | #637 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “r” sits in French frequency
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for r is neighbouring look-alikes ("Re", "Rh", …), not just typos; it is acharacter pronounced \ɛʁ\. Frequency #637 among 507,453 “R” headwords. Gloss: "Dix-huitième lettre et quatorzième consonne de l’alphabet (minuscule).".
Zero misspellings are on record for r in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "Re", "Rh", "RT", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is r, spelled R.
Definition
- 1Dix-huitième lettre et quatorzième consonne de l’alphabet (minuscule).
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how r appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Ils nous aboyaient pour qu’on apprenne un dialecte d’ailleurs, eux-mêmes baragouinaient des idiomes aux r roulés, qu’on se cachait sous l’eau. On entravait tchi.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of May 6, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "r"?
What does "r" mean?
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Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.