ratéesvsrayéeTell them apart

Which to use

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

#37,024
“ratées” frequency rank
#34,275
“rayée” frequency rank
71299
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ratées rayée
Definition Féminin pluriel de raté. Féminin singulier de rayé.

Where the eye mixes ratées and rayée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. ratées runs 6 letters (CVCVVC) against rayée's 5 (CVVVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
ratées
5 ch
rayée

Look-alike desk: ratées vs rayée

A purely visual mix-up. ratées (\ʁa.te\) and rayée (\ʁɛ.je\) 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 71299, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ratées is recorded at frequency rank #37,024, classified as anadj, pronounced \ʁa.te\. rayée is at rank #34,275, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ʁɛ.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 71299, this pair ranks #48,056 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ratées vs rayée

Shared letters: aeré. Private to "ratées": st. Private to "rayée": y.

"ratées" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "rayée" · 5 letters · shape CVVVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ratées" and "rayée" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ʁa.te\ versus \ʁɛ.je\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "ratées" or "rayée" show up more?
"rayée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #34,275 in our French list, against #37,024 for "ratées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ratées" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rayée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #48,056 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ratées" and "rayée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "râles vs ratées". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #48,056 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