racevsrueWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#2,098
“race” frequency rank
#438
“rue” frequency rank
2536
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature race rue
Definition Lignée ; ensemble des ascendants et des descendants d’une même famille. Voie de circulation d'une ville, d'un bourg, d'un village, etc., généralement bordée de maisons ou de propriétés closes.

Where the eye mixes race and rue

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

4 ch
race
3 ch
rue

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. race (\ʁas\) and rue (\ʁy\) 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 2536, 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\. rue is at rank #438, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁy\.

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 2536, this pair ranks #435,954 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of race vs rue

Shared letters: er. Private to "race": ac. Private to "rue": u.

"race" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "rue" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • racearce · racce · raec · rcae · rrace

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "race" and "rue" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ʁas\ versus \ʁy\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "race" or "rue"?
"rue" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #438 in our French list, against #2,098 for "race". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list