regardsvsrenardsWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#5,698
“regards” frequency rank
#26,849
“renards” frequency rank
32547
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature regards renards
Definition Pluriel de regard. Pluriel de renard.

Where the eye mixes regards and renards

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

7 ch
regards
7 ch
renards

Visual trap between regards and renards

A purely visual mix-up. regards (\ʁə.ɡaʁ\) and renards (\ʁə.naʁ\) 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 a single letter - g in “regards” becomes n in “renards”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32547, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

regards is recorded at frequency rank #5,698, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁə.ɡaʁ\. renards is at rank #26,849, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁə.naʁ\.

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 32547, this pair ranks #296,559 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of regards vs renards

Shared letters: aders. Private to "regards": g. Private to "renards": n.

"regards" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCC  ·  "renards" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • regardsergards · reagrds · regadrs · regardds · regardss · regarrds · regarsd · reggards
  • renardsernards · reanrds · renadrs · renardds · renardss · renarrds · renarsd · rennards

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "regards" and "renards" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ʁə.ɡaʁ\ versus \ʁə.naʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "regards" or "renards" show up more?
"regards" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,698 in our French list, against #26,849 for "renards". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "regards" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "renards" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #296,559 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "regards" and "renards" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rénales vs renards". 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 #296,559 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