regarderavsretarderWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#27,936
“regardera” frequency rank
#12,466
“retarder” frequency rank
40402
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature regardera retarder
Definition Troisième personne du singulier du futur de regarder. Différer ; temporiser.

Where the eye mixes regardera and retarder

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. regardera runs 9 letters (CVCVCCVCV) against retarder's 8 (CVCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
regardera
8 ch
retarder

Look-alike desk: regardera vs retarder

A purely visual mix-up. regardera (\ʁə.ɡaʁ.də.ʁa\) and retarder (\ʁə.taʁ.de\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40402, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

regardera is recorded at frequency rank #27,936, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.ɡaʁ.də.ʁa\. retarder is at rank #12,466, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.taʁ.de\.

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 40402, this pair ranks #240,792 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of regardera vs retarder

Shared letters: ader. Private to "regardera": g. Private to "retarder": t.

"regardera" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCVCV  ·  "retarder" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • regarderaergardera · reagrdera · regadrera · regarddera · regardear · regarderra · regardrea · regaredra
  • retarderertarder · reatrder · retadrer · retardder · retarderr · retardre · retaredr · retarrder

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "regardera" and "retarder" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ʁə.ɡaʁ.də.ʁa\ versus \ʁə.taʁ.de\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "regardera" vs "retarder" - which ranks higher?
"retarder" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,466 in our French list, against #27,936 for "regardera". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "regardera" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "retarder" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #240,792 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "regardera" and "retarder" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "regardées vs regardera". 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 #240,792 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