Which to use
“regardés” is a verb and “retardés” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #25,791
- “regardés” frequency rank
- #39,506
- “retardés” frequency rank
- 65297
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | regardés | retardés |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Participe passé masculin pluriel de regarder. | Masculin pluriel de retardé. |
Where the eye mixes regardés and retardés
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. regardés and retardés follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between regardés and retardés
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: regardés is \ʁə.ɡaʁ.de\ while retardés is \ʁə.taʁ.de\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - g in “regardés” becomes t in “retardés”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65297, 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\. retardés is at rank #39,506, tagged as anadj, 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 65297, this pair ranks #72,999 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of regardés vs retardés
Shared letters: adersé. Private to "regardés": g. Private to "retardés": t.
"regardés" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC · "retardés" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "regardés" for "retardés" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "regardés" or "retardés" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "regardés" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "retardés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #72,999 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "regardés" and "retardés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "regardées vs retardés". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #72,999 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.