radiervsraflerWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: radier is a noun, rafler is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“radier” is a noun and “rafler” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#41,992
“radier” frequency rank
#40,451
“rafler” frequency rank
82443
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature radier rafler
Definition Plate-forme en béton, en pierre, en charpente, etc. sur laquelle on assoit un bâtiment. Emporter brutalement, sans rien laisser.

Where the eye mixes radier and rafler

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. radier (CVCVVC) and rafler (CVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
radier
6 ch
rafler

Why the eye confuses radier with rafler

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: radier is \ʁa.dje\ while rafler is \ʁa.fle\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 82443, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

radier is recorded at frequency rank #41,992, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁa.dje\. rafler is at rank #40,451, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁa.fle\.

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 82443, this pair ranks #16,739 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of radier vs rafler

Shared letters: aer. Private to "radier": di. Private to "rafler": fl.

"radier" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "rafler" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • radier ← ardier · raddier · radeir · radierr · radire · rdaier · rradier
  • rafler ← arfler · rafelr · raffler · raflerr · rafller · raflre · ralfer · rfaler

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "radier" and "rafler" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "radier" is a noun and "rafler" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "radier" or "rafler" show up more?
"rafler" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #40,451 in our French list, against #41,992 for "radier". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "radier" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rafler" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #16,739 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "radier" and "rafler" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "radier vs rainier". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #16,739 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