Which to use
“referais” is a verb and “refrain” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #38,002
- “referais” frequency rank
- #13,461
- “refrain” frequency rank
- 51463
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | referais | refrain |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier du conditionnel de refaire. | Un ou plusieurs mots qui se répètent à la fin de chaque couplet d’une chanson, d’une ballade, d’un rondeau, etc. |
Where the eye mixes referais and refrain
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between referais and refrain
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: referais is \ʁə.fə.ʁɛ\ while refrain is \ʁə.fʁɛ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51463, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
referais is recorded at frequency rank #38,002, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.fə.ʁɛ\. refrain is at rank #13,461, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁə.fʁɛ̃\.
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 51463, this pair ranks #154,804 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of referais vs refrain
Shared letters: aefir. Private to "referais": s. Private to "refrain": n.
"referais" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVVC · "refrain" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "referais" and "refrain" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "referais" vs "refrain" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "referais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "refrain" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #154,804 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "referais" and "refrain" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "referais vs rendrais". 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 #154,804 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.