raisvsratiosWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#37,509
“rais” frequency rank
#35,674
“ratios” frequency rank
73183
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rais ratios
Definition Ancienne orthographe de rai, figurant au Dictionnaire de l'Académie française jusqu’en 1878. Pluriel de ratio.

Where the eye mixes rais and ratios

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. rais runs 4 letters (CVVC) against ratios's 6 (CVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
rais
6 ch
ratios

Why the eye confuses rais with ratios

A purely visual mix-up. rais (\ʁɛ\) and ratios (\ʁa.sjo\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 73183, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rais is recorded at frequency rank #37,509, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁɛ\. ratios is at rank #35,674, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁa.sjo\.

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 73183, this pair ranks #41,336 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of rais vs ratios

Shared letters: airs. Private to "rais": -. Private to "ratios": ot.

"rais" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "ratios" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • rais ← raiss · rasi · rias · rrais
  • ratios ← raitos · ratioss · ratiso · rattios · rratios · rtaios

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "rais" for "ratios" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ʁɛ\ versus \ʁa.sjo\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "rais" vs "ratios" - which ranks higher?
"ratios" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,674 in our French list, against #37,509 for "rais". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "rais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ratios" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #41,336 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rais" and "ratios" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rais vs Rhys". 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 #41,336 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