ratéevsratentTell them apart

Quick tell: ratée is a noun, ratent is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ratée” is a noun and “ratent” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#15,989
“ratée” frequency rank
#36,558
“ratent” frequency rank
52547
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ratée ratent
Definition Femme qui n’a pas réussi dans une entreprise, dans une démarche, dans sa vie, etc. Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de rater.

Where the eye mixes ratée and ratent

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

5 ch
ratée
6 ch
ratent

Look-alike desk: ratée vs ratent

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ratée is \ʁa.te\ while ratent is \ʁat\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52547, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ratée is recorded at frequency rank #15,989, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁa.te\. ratent is at rank #36,558, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁat\.

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 52547, this pair ranks #146,990 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ratée vs ratent

Shared letters: aert. Private to "ratée": é. Private to "ratent": n.

"ratée" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "ratent" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ratentartent · raetnt · ratennt · ratentt · ratetn · ratnet · rattent · rratent

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ratée" and "ratent" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ratée" is a noun and "ratent" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "ratée" vs "ratent" - which ranks higher?
"ratée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,989 in our French list, against #36,558 for "ratent". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "ratée" and "ratent" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ratée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ratent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #146,990 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ratée" and "ratent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ratent vs rement". 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 #146,990 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