regardésvsretardéeConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#25,791
“regardés” frequency rank
#25,112
“retardée” frequency rank
50903
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature regardés retardée
Definition Participe passé masculin pluriel de regarder. Femme qui a été retardée.

Where the eye mixes regardés and retardée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. regardés (CVCVCCVC) and retardée (CVCVCCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

8 ch
regardés
8 ch
retardée

Visual trap between regardés and retardée

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: regardés is \ʁə.ɡaʁ.de\ while retardée is \ʁə.taʁ.de\. 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 50903, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

regardés is recorded at frequency rank #25,791, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.ɡaʁ.de\. retardée is at rank #25,112, tagged as anoun, 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 50903, this pair ranks #159,046 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of regardés vs retardée

Shared letters: aderé. Private to "regardés": gs. Private to "retardée": t.

"regardés" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC  ·  "retardée" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "regardés" and "retardée" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "regardés" is a verb and "retardée" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "regardés" or "retardée" show up more?
"retardée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,112 in our French list, against #25,791 for "regardés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "regardés" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "retardée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #159,046 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "regardés" and "retardée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "remariée vs retardée". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #159,046 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