raté vs Rune, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“raté” is an adjective and “Rune” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,217
“raté” frequency rank: #47,011
“Rune” frequency rank: 50228
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	raté	Rune
Definition	Qui a raté, qui a échoué, qui n’a pas atteint son but.	Nom de famille.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set raté and Rune apart are highlighted. They share 1 letter in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch

raté

4 ch

Rune

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: raté is anadjective and Runeaname. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50228, 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\. Rune is at rank #47,011, tagged as aname.

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 50228, this pair ranks #164,271 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of raté vs Rune

Shared letters: r. Private to "raté": até. Private to "Rune": enu.

"raté" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "Rune" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

Rune ← rnue · rrune · ruen · runne

Frequency comparison

raté#3,217

Rune#47,011

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

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

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "raté" is an adjective and "Rune" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

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

"raté" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,217 in our French list, against #47,011 for "Rune". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering raté vs Rune

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “raté”; for a name, it's “Rune”.
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