racléevsrâlesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#32,546
“raclée” frequency rank
#48,774
“râles” frequency rank
81320
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature raclée râles
Definition Coups répétés portés à une personne ou à un animal. Pluriel de râle.

Where the eye mixes raclée and râles

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. raclée runs 6 letters (CVCCVV) against râles's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
raclée
5 ch
râles

Visual trap between raclée and râles

A purely visual mix-up. raclée (\ʁɑ.kle\) 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 81320, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

raclée is recorded at frequency rank #32,546, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁɑ.kle\. 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 81320, this pair ranks #19,001 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of raclée vs râles

Shared letters: elr. Private to "raclée": acé. Private to "râles": sâ.

"raclée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "râles" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "raclée" for "râles" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ʁɑ.kle\ versus \ʁɑl\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "raclée" vs "râles" - which ranks higher?
"raclée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,546 in our French list, against #48,774 for "râles". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "raclée" and "râles" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "raclée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "râles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #19,001 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "raclée" and "râles" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "râles vs rasées". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #19,001 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list