raté vs roué, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#3,217
“raté” frequency rank: #46,421
“roué” frequency rank: 49638
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	raté	roué
Definition	Qui a raté, qui a échoué, qui n’a pas atteint son but.	Qualifie le bois du cerf, lorsqu’il est serré et peu ouvert.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set raté and roué apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch

raté

4 ch

roué

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. raté (\ʁa.te\) and roué (\ʁwe\) 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 49638, 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\. roué is at rank #46,421, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ʁwe\.

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 49638, this pair ranks #169,019 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of raté vs roué

Shared letters: ré. Private to "raté": at. Private to "roué": ou.

"raté" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "roué" · 4 letters · shape CVVV

Frequency comparison

raté#3,217

roué#46,421

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

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

No. They are said differently (\ʁa.te\ versus \ʁwe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

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

"raté" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,217 in our French list, against #46,421 for "roué". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering raté vs roué

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