réglagevsrelatéTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#18,582
“réglage” frequency rank
#32,559
“relaté” frequency rank
51141
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature réglage relaté
Definition Action de régler (par exemple une montre, un moteur, un tir d’artillerie…), ou résultat de cette action. Participe passé masculin singulier de relater.

Where the eye mixes réglage and relaté

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. réglage runs 7 letters (CVCCVCV) against relaté's 6 (CVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
réglage
6 ch
relaté

Why the eye confuses réglage with relaté

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: réglage is \ʁe.ɡlaʒ\ while relaté is \ʁə.la.te\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51141, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

réglage is recorded at frequency rank #18,582, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁe.ɡlaʒ\. 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 51141, this pair ranks #157,265 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of réglage vs relaté

Shared letters: aelré. Private to "réglage": g. Private to "relaté": t.

"réglage" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "relaté" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "réglage" and "relaté" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "réglage" is a noun and "relaté" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "réglage" or "relaté" show up more?
"réglage" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,582 in our French list, against #32,559 for "relaté". 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 "réglage" 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 #157,265 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "réglage" and "relaté" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "relaté vs relit". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #157,265 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