ratésvsrayésTell them apart

Which to use

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

#16,980
“ratés” frequency rank
#43,107
“rayés” frequency rank
60087
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ratés rayés
Definition Masculin pluriel de raté. Masculin pluriel de rayé.

Where the eye mixes ratés and rayés

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. ratés (CVCVC) and rayés (CVVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
ratés
5 ch
rayés

Look-alike desk: ratés vs rayés

A purely visual mix-up. ratés (\ʁa.te\) and rayés (\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 a single letter - t in “ratés” becomes y in “rayés”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60087, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ratés is recorded at frequency rank #16,980, classified as anadj, pronounced \ʁa.te\. rayés is at rank #43,107, 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 60087, this pair ranks #99,530 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ratés vs rayés

Shared letters: arsé. Private to "ratés": t. Private to "rayés": y.

"ratés" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "rayés" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ratés" and "rayés" be used interchangeably?
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.
Frequency check: "ratés" vs "rayés" - which ranks higher?
"ratés" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,980 in our French list, against #43,107 for "rayés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "ratés" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rayés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #99,530 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ratés" and "rayés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rayés vs Rhys". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #99,530 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