ratéevsriteConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#15,989
“ratée” frequency rank
#13,053
“rite” frequency rank
29042
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ratée rite
Definition Femme qui n’a pas réussi dans une entreprise, dans une démarche, dans sa vie, etc. Ensemble des règles et cérémonies en usage dans une religion.

Where the eye mixes ratée and rite

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
ratée
4 ch
rite

Why the eye confuses ratée with rite

A purely visual mix-up. ratée (\ʁa.te\) and rite (\ʁit\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29042, 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\. rite is at rank #13,053, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁit\.

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 29042, this pair ranks #319,088 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ratée vs rite

Shared letters: ert. Private to "ratée": . Private to "rite": i.

"ratée" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "rite" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • riteirte · riet · ritte · rrite · rtie

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ratée" and "rite" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ʁa.te\ versus \ʁit\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "ratée" or "rite" show up more?
"rite" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,053 in our French list, against #15,989 for "ratée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "ratée" and "rite" 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 "rite" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #319,088 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ratée" and "rite" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "râles vs ratée". 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 #319,088 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