ratésvsroteWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: ratés is a adjective, rote is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ratés” is an adjective and “rote” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#16,980
“ratés” frequency rank
#40,976
“rote” frequency rank
57956
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ratés rote
Definition Masculin pluriel de raté. Tribunal religieux de la cour de Rome, composé de docteurs ecclésiastiques nommés.

Where the eye mixes ratés and rote

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. ratés runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against rote's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
ratés
4 ch
rote

Visual trap between ratés and rote

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ratés is \ʁa.te\ while rote is \ʁɔt\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57956, 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\. rote is at rank #40,976, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁɔt\.

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 57956, this pair ranks #111,914 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ratés vs rote

Shared letters: rt. Private to "ratés": asé. Private to "rote": eo.

"ratés" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "rote" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • rote ← orte · roet · rotte · rrote · rtoe

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ratés" for "rote" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ratés" is an adjective and "rote" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "ratés" or "rote" show up more?
"ratés" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,980 in our French list, against #40,976 for "rote". 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 "ratés" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rote" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #111,914 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ratés" and "rote" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rote vs roya". 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 #111,914 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