régatevsrelatéConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#43,648
“régate” frequency rank
#32,559
“relaté” frequency rank
76207
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature régate relaté
Definition Course d’embarcations, de yachts qui se disputent le prix de la vitesse. Participe passé masculin singulier de relater.

Where the eye mixes régate and relaté

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

6 ch
régate
6 ch
relaté

Why the eye confuses régate with relaté

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: régate is \ʁe.ɡat\ while relaté is \ʁə.la.te\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 76207, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

régate is recorded at frequency rank #43,648, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁe.ɡat\. relaté is at rank #32,559, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.la.te\.

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 76207, this pair ranks #31,793 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of régate vs relaté

Shared letters: aerté. Private to "régate": g. Private to "relaté": l.

"régate" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "relaté" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "régate" for "relaté" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "régate" is a noun and "relaté" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "régate" or "relaté" show up more?
"relaté" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,559 in our French list, against #43,648 for "régate". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "régate" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "relaté" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #31,793 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "régate" and "relaté" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "régate vs Renata". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #31,793 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