racevsrâlesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“race” and “râles” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#2,098
“race” frequency rank
#48,774
“râles” frequency rank
50872
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature race râles
Definition Lignée ; ensemble des ascendants et des descendants d’une même famille. Pluriel de râle.

Where the eye mixes race and râles

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
race
5 ch
râles

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. race (\ʁas\) and râles (\ʁɑl\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50872, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

race is recorded at frequency rank #2,098, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁas\. râles is at rank #48,774, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁɑl\.

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 50872, this pair ranks #159,288 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of race vs râles

Shared letters: er. Private to "race": ac. Private to "râles": lsâ.

"race" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "râles" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • racearce · racce · raec · rcae · rrace

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "race" and "râles" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ʁas\ versus \ʁɑl\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "race" or "râles"?
"race" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,098 in our French list, against #48,774 for "râles". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list