readervsréglerTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#39,965
“reader” frequency rank
#2,595
“régler” frequency rank
42560
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature reader régler
Definition Lecteur, lectrice. Tirer avec la règle des lignes droites sur du papier, du carton, etc.

Where the eye mixes reader and régler

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

6 ch
reader
6 ch
régler

Why the eye confuses reader with régler

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: reader is \ɹiːdəɹ\ while régler is \ʁe.ɡle\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42560, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

reader is recorded at frequency rank #39,965, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɹiːdəɹ\. régler is at rank #2,595, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁe.ɡle\.

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 42560, this pair ranks #224,666 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of reader vs régler

Shared letters: er. Private to "reader": ad. Private to "régler": glé.

"reader" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "régler" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • readererader · raeder · readder · readerr · readre · reaedr · redaer · rreader

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "reader" for "régler" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "reader" is a noun and "régler" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "reader" or "régler" show up more?
"régler" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,595 in our French list, against #39,965 for "reader". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "reader" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "régler" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #224,666 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "reader" and "régler" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "racer vs reader". 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 #224,666 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