ravinvsravoirWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#19,382
“ravin” frequency rank
#41,996
“ravoir” frequency rank
61378
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ravin ravoir
Definition Forte dépression de terrain ; vallon étroit et raide. 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 ravin and ravoir

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

5 ch
ravin
6 ch
ravoir

Why the eye confuses ravin with ravoir

A purely visual mix-up. ravin (\ʁa.vɛ̃\) and ravoir (\ʁa.vwaʁ\) 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 61378, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ravin is recorded at frequency rank #19,382, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁa.vɛ̃\. 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 61378, this pair ranks #92,599 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ravin vs ravoir

Shared letters: airv. Private to "ravin": n. Private to "ravoir": o.

"ravin" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "ravoir" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ravinarvin · raivn · ravinn · ravni · ravvin · rravin · rvain
  • ravoirarvoir · raovir · ravior · ravoirr · ravori · ravvoir · rravoir · rvaoir

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ravin" for "ravoir" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ʁa.vɛ̃\ versus \ʁa.vwaʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "ravin" vs "ravoir" - which ranks higher?
"ravin" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,382 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.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "ravin" 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 #92,599 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ravin" 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 #92,599 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