RevsruerWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Re is a noun, ruer is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Re” is a noun and “ruer” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,641
“Re” frequency rank
#39,989
“ruer” frequency rank
42630
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Re ruer
Definition Taux effectif de transmission d’une maladie. Jeter ou lancer vivement.

Where the eye mixes Re and ruer

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

2 ch
Re
4 ch
ruer

Visual trap between Re and ruer

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Re is \ɛ.ʁœ\ while ruer is \ʁɥe\. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42630, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Re is recorded at frequency rank #2,641, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɛ.ʁœ\. ruer is at rank #39,989, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁɥe\.

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 42630, this pair ranks #224,161 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Re vs ruer

Shared letters: er. Private to "Re": -. Private to "ruer": u.

"Re" · 2 letters · shape CV  ·  "ruer" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ruerreur · rruer · ruerr · rure · urer

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Re" and "ruer" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Re" is a noun and "ruer" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "Re" or "ruer" show up more?
"Re" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,641 in our French list, against #39,989 for "ruer". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "Re" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ruer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #224,161 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Re" and "ruer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rouet vs ruer". 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 #224,161 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