Which to use
“raté” is an adjective and “rêve” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #3,217
- “raté” frequency rank
- #1,210
- “rêve” frequency rank
- 4427
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | raté | rêve |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui a raté, qui a échoué, qui n’a pas atteint son but. | Expérience illusoire, souvent absurde, agréable ou désagréable, vécue à la faveur d'une activité cérébrale pendant le sommeil. |
Where the eye mixes raté and rêve
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.
Visual trap between raté and rêve
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: raté is \ʁa.te\ while rêve is \ʁɛv\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4427, 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\. rêve is at rank #1,210, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁɛv\.
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 4427, this pair ranks #431,648 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of raté vs rêve
Shared letters: r. Private to "raté": até. Private to "rêve": evê.
"raté" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "rêve" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "raté" for "rêve" ever safe?
Which is more common, "raté" or "rêve"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "raté" and "rêve" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "raté" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "rêve" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #431,648 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "raté" and "rêve" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "RAMQ vs raté". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #431,648 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.