reasonvsrégionTell them apart

Which to use

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

#41,997
“reason” frequency rank
#451
“région” frequency rank
42448
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature reason région
Definition Raison. Vaste territoire ; étendue de pays.

Where the eye mixes reason and région

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

6 ch
reason
6 ch
région

Visual trap between reason and région

A purely visual mix-up. reason (\ˈɹiː.zən\) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42448, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

reason is recorded at frequency rank #41,997, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈɹiː.zən\. 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 42448, this pair ranks #225,531 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of reason vs région

Shared letters: nor. Private to "reason": aes. Private to "région": gié.

"reason" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "région" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • reasonerason · raeson · reaosn · reasno · reasonn · reasson · resaon · rreason

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "reason" and "région" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ˈɹiː.zən\ versus \ʁe.ʒjɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "reason" or "région" show up more?
"région" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #451 in our French list, against #41,997 for "reason". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "reason" 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 #225,531 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "reason" and "région" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "radon vs reason". 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 #225,531 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