récifvsregisWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#31,238
“récif” frequency rank
#34,282
“regis” frequency rank
65520
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature récif regis
Definition Rocher ou chaîne de rochers à fleur d’eau, dans la mer. Passé du verbe regi.

Where the eye mixes récif and regis

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. récif and regis follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
récif
5 ch
regis

Look-alike desk: récif vs regis

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: récif is \ʁe.sif\ while regis is \ˈre.ɡis\. 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 65520, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

récif is recorded at frequency rank #31,238, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁe.sif\. regis is at rank #34,282, tagged as averb, pronounced \ˈre.ɡis\.

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 65520, this pair ranks #71,964 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of récif vs regis

Shared letters: ir. Private to "récif": cfé. Private to "regis": egs.

"récif" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "regis" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • regis ← ergis · reggis · regiss · regsi · reigs · rgeis · rregis

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "récif" and "regis" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "récif" is a noun and "regis" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "récif" vs "regis" - which ranks higher?
"récif" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,238 in our French list, against #34,282 for "regis". 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 "récif" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "regis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #71,964 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "récif" and "regis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "regis vs relit". 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 #71,964 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