raisinvsraisonsConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#11,649
“raisin” frequency rank
#1,148
“raisons” frequency rank
12797
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature raisin raisons
Definition Fruit de la vigne constitué d’une grappe de grains (baies) placés les uns à côté des autres d’une couleur clair à foncé suivant la variété. Pluriel de raison.

Where the eye mixes raisin and raisons

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. raisin runs 6 letters (CVVCVC) against raisons's 7 (CVVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
raisin
7 ch
raisons

Look-alike desk: raisin vs raisons

A purely visual mix-up. raisin (\ʁɛ.zɛ̃\) and raisons (\ʁɛ.zɔ̃\) 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 12797, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

raisin is recorded at frequency rank #11,649, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁɛ.zɛ̃\. raisons is at rank #1,148, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁɛ.zɔ̃\.

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 12797, this pair ranks #403,710 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of raisin vs raisons

Shared letters: ainrs. Private to "raisin": -. Private to "raisons": o.

"raisin" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "raisons" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • raisin ← arisin · raiisn · raisinn · raisni · raissin · rasiin · riasin · rraisin
  • raisons ← arisons · raiosns · raisnos · raisonns · raisonss · raisosn · raissons · rasions

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "raisin" for "raisons" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ʁɛ.zɛ̃\ versus \ʁɛ.zɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "raisin" or "raisons" show up more?
"raisons" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,148 in our French list, against #11,649 for "raisin". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "raisin" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "raisons" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #403,710 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "raisin" and "raisons" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rabin vs raisin". 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 #403,710 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