Which to use
“ratée” is a noun and “rayer” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #15,989
- “ratée” frequency rank
- #24,007
- “rayer” frequency rank
- 39996
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ratée | rayer |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Femme qui n’a pas réussi dans une entreprise, dans une démarche, dans sa vie, etc. | Marquer d’une ou de plusieurs raies, |
Where the eye mixes ratée and rayer
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses ratée with rayer
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ratée is \ʁa.te\ while rayer is \ʁe.je\. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39996, 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\. rayer is at rank #24,007, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁe.je\.
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 39996, this pair ranks #243,804 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of ratée vs rayer
Shared letters: aer. Private to "ratée": té. Private to "rayer": y.
"ratée" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV · "rayer" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- rayer ← aryer · raeyr · rayerr · rayre · rayyer · rrayer · ryaer
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "ratée" and "rayer" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "ratée" or "rayer" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "ratée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "rayer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #243,804 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ratée" and "rayer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "râles vs rayer". 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 #243,804 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.