recordsvsregardsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#6,741
“records” frequency rank
#5,698
“regards” frequency rank
12439
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature records regards
Definition Pluriel de record. Pluriel de regard.

Where the eye mixes records and regards

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. records and regards follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
records
7 ch
regards

Visual trap between records and regards

A purely visual mix-up. records (\ʁə.kɔʁ\) and regards (\ʁə.ɡaʁ\) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12439, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

records is recorded at frequency rank #6,741, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁə.kɔʁ\. regards is at rank #5,698, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁə.ɡaʁ\.

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 12439, this pair ranks #405,275 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of records vs regards

Shared letters: ders. Private to "records": co. Private to "regards": ag.

"records" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCC  ·  "regards" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • recordsercords · rceords · reccords · recodrs · recordds · recordss · recorrds · recorsd
  • regardsergards · reagrds · regadrs · regardds · regardss · regarrds · regarsd · reggards

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "records" and "regards" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ʁə.kɔʁ\ versus \ʁə.ɡaʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "records" or "regards" show up more?
"regards" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,698 in our French list, against #6,741 for "records". 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 "records" and "regards" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "records" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "regards" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #405,275 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "records" and "regards" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "records vs remord". 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 #405,275 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