regardévsretardsWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#2,692
“regardé” frequency rank
#11,655
“retards” frequency rank
14347
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature regardé retards
Definition Participe passé masculin singulier de regarder. Pluriel de retard.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set regardé and retards apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

7 ch
regardé
7 ch
retards

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: regardé is \ʁə.ɡaʁ.de\ while retards is \ʁə.taʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14347, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

regardé is recorded at frequency rank #2,692, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.ɡaʁ.de\. retards is at rank #11,655, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁə.taʁ\.

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 14347, this pair ranks #397,087 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of regardé vs retards

Shared letters: ader. Private to "regardé": . Private to "retards": st.

"regardé" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV  ·  "retards" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • retardsertards · reatrds · retadrs · retardds · retardss · retarrds · retarsd · retrads

Frequency comparison

regardé#2,692
retards#11,655

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "regardé" and "retards" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "regardé" is a verb and "retards" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "regardé" or "retards"?
"regardé" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,692 in our French list, against #11,655 for "retards". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering regardé vs retards

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “regardé”; for a noun, it's “retards”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “regardé” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list