ratéesvsrestéesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#37,024
“ratées” frequency rank
#14,550
“restées” frequency rank
51574
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ratées restées
Definition Féminin pluriel de raté. Féminin pluriel de resté.

Where the eye mixes ratées and restées

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. ratées runs 6 letters (CVCVVC) against restées's 7 (CVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
ratées
7 ch
restées

Look-alike desk: ratées vs restées

A purely visual mix-up. ratées (\ʁa.te\) and restées (\ʁɛs.te\) 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 51574, 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\. restées is at rank #14,550, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ʁɛs.te\.

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 51574, this pair ranks #154,000 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ratées vs restées

Shared letters: ersté. Private to "ratées": a. Private to "restées": -.

"ratées" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "restées" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ratées" and "restées" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ʁa.te\ versus \ʁɛs.te\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "ratées" or "restées" show up more?
"restées" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,550 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.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ratées" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "restées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #154,000 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ratées" and "restées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "râles vs ratées". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #154,000 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