râlesvsreyesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#48,774
“râles” frequency rank
#29,120
“reyes” frequency rank
77894
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature râles reyes
Definition Pluriel de râle. Pluriel de rey.

Where the eye mixes râles and reyes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. râles (CVCVC) and reyes (CVVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
râles
5 ch
reyes

Why the eye confuses râles with reyes

A purely visual mix-up. râles (\ʁɑl\) and reyes (\ˈɾe.ʝes\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 77894, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

râles is recorded at frequency rank #48,774, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁɑl\. reyes is at rank #29,120, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈɾe.ʝes\.

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 77894, this pair ranks #27,159 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of râles vs reyes

Shared letters: ers. Private to "râles": lâ. Private to "reyes": y.

"râles" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "reyes" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • reyes ← eryes · reeys · reyess · reyse · reyyes · rreyes · ryees

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "râles" and "reyes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ʁɑl\ versus \ˈɾe.ʝes\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "râles" vs "reyes" - which ranks higher?
"reyes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,120 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 "râles" and "reyes" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "râles" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "reyes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #27,159 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "râles" and "reyes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "râles vs rasées". 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 #27,159 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