râlervsruerWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#18,865
“râler” frequency rank
#39,989
“ruer” frequency rank
58854
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature râler ruer
Definition Faire entendre un râle, des râles en respirant. Jeter ou lancer vivement.

Where the eye mixes râler and ruer

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. râler runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against ruer's 4 (CVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
râler
4 ch
ruer

Visual trap between râler and ruer

A purely visual mix-up. râler (\ʁa.le\) and ruer (\ʁɥe\) 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 58854, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

râler is recorded at frequency rank #18,865, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁa.le\. ruer is at rank #39,989, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁɥe\.

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 58854, this pair ranks #106,493 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of râler vs ruer

Shared letters: er. Private to "râler": lâ. Private to "ruer": u.

"râler" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "ruer" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ruer ← reur · rruer · ruerr · rure · urer

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "râler" for "ruer" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ʁa.le\ versus \ʁɥe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "râler" or "ruer"?
"râler" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,865 in our French list, against #39,989 for "ruer". 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 "râler" and "ruer" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "râler" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ruer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #106,493 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "râler" and "ruer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rouet vs ruer". 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 #106,493 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