ravivsravoirWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#7,362
“ravi” frequency rank
#41,996
“ravoir” frequency rank
49358
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ravi ravoir
Definition Enchanté ; très content. Filet tendu verticalement, tour à tour couvert et découvert par la marée ^([1]). Filet tendu au travers d’une rivière ^([1]).

Where the eye mixes ravi and ravoir

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

4 ch
ravi
6 ch
ravoir

Look-alike desk: ravi vs ravoir

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ravi is \ʁa.vi\ while ravoir is \ʁa.vwaʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 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 49358, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ravi is recorded at frequency rank #7,362, classified as anadj, pronounced \ʁa.vi\. ravoir is at rank #41,996, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁa.vwaʁ\.

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 49358, this pair ranks #171,350 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ravi vs ravoir

Shared letters: airv. Private to "ravi": -. Private to "ravoir": o.

"ravi" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "ravoir" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ravi ← arvi · raiv · ravvi · rravi
  • ravoir ← arvoir · raovir · ravior · ravoirr · ravori · ravvoir · rravoir · rvaoir

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ravi" for "ravoir" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ravi" is an adjective and "ravoir" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "ravi" or "ravoir" show up more?
"ravi" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,362 in our French list, against #41,996 for "ravoir". 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 "ravi" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ravoir" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #171,350 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ravi" and "ravoir" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ravoir vs revoie". 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 #171,350 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