rationvsrégionTell them apart

Which to use

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

#19,645
“ration” frequency rank
#451
“région” frequency rank
20096
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ration région
Definition Portion journalière soit de pain, soit d’autres vivres, soit de fourrage, qui se distribue aux soldats ou aux marins. Vaste territoire ; étendue de pays.

Where the eye mixes ration and région

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
ration
6 ch
région

Look-alike desk: ration vs région

A purely visual mix-up. ration (\ʁa.sjɔ̃\) and région (\ʁe.ʒjɔ̃\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20096, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ration is recorded at frequency rank #19,645, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁa.sjɔ̃\. région is at rank #451, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁe.ʒjɔ̃\.

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 20096, this pair ranks #369,970 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ration vs région

Shared letters: inor. Private to "ration": at. Private to "région": .

"ration" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "région" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • rationartion · raiton · ratino · rationn · ratoin · rattion · rration · rtaion

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ration" for "région" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ʁa.sjɔ̃\ versus \ʁe.ʒjɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "ration" vs "région" - which ranks higher?
"région" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #451 in our French list, against #19,645 for "ration". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "ration" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "région" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #369,970 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ration" and "région" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "radon vs ration". 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 #369,970 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