raservsresterWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#12,233
“raser” frequency rank
#660
“rester” frequency rank
12893
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature raser rester
Definition Tondre, couper le poil ou les cheveux tout près de la peau avec un rasoir. Continuer d’être à un endroit ou dans un état.

Where the eye mixes raser and rester

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
raser
6 ch
rester

Why the eye confuses raser with rester

A purely visual mix-up. raser (\ʁɑ.ze\) and rester (\ʁɛs.te\) 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 12893, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

raser is recorded at frequency rank #12,233, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁɑ.ze\. rester is at rank #660, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁɛs.te\.

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 12893, this pair ranks #403,308 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of raser vs rester

Shared letters: ers. Private to "raser": a. Private to "rester": t.

"raser" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "rester" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • raserarser · raesr · raserr · rasre · rasser · rraser · rsaer
  • restererster · resetr · resster · resterr · restre · restter · retser · rrester

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "raser" and "rester" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ʁɑ.ze\ versus \ʁɛs.te\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "raser" or "rester"?
"rester" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #660 in our French list, against #12,233 for "raser". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "raser" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rester" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #403,308 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "raser" and "rester" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "râles vs raser". 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 #403,308 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