raté vs ratées, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#3,217
“raté” frequency rank: #37,024
“ratées” frequency rank: 40241
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	raté	ratées
Definition	Qui a raté, qui a échoué, qui n’a pas atteint son but.	Féminin pluriel de raté.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set raté and ratées apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch

raté

6 ch

ratées

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

This is the hard kind. raté and ratées are pronounced identically (\ʁa.te\) and both work as anadjective. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “raté” sits inside “ratées”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40241, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

raté is recorded at frequency rank #3,217, classified as anadj, pronounced \ʁa.te\. ratées is at rank #37,024, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ʁa.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 40241, this pair ranks #241,967 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of raté vs ratées

Shared letters: arté. Private to "raté": -. Private to "ratées": es.

"raté" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "ratées" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC

Frequency comparison

raté#3,217

ratées#37,024

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "raté" and "ratées" be used interchangeably?

No. They are pronounced the same (\ʁa.te\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.

Which is more common, "raté" or "ratées"?

"raté" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,217 in our French list, against #37,024 for "ratées". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering raté vs ratées

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “raté” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable