règnesvsreyesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#31,235
“règnes” frequency rank
#29,120
“reyes” frequency rank
60355
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature règnes reyes
Definition Pluriel de règne. Pluriel de rey.

Where the eye mixes règnes and reyes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. règnes runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against reyes's 5 (CVVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
règnes
5 ch
reyes

Why the eye confuses règnes with reyes

A purely visual mix-up. règnes (\ʁɛɲ\) and reyes (\ˈɾe.ʝes\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60355, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

règnes is recorded at frequency rank #31,235, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁɛɲ\. reyes is at rank #29,120, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈɾe.ʝes\.

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 60355, this pair ranks #98,011 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of règnes vs reyes

Shared letters: ers. Private to "règnes": gnè. Private to "reyes": y.

"règnes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "reyes" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • reyes ← eryes · reeys · reyess · reyse · reyyes · rreyes · ryees

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "règnes" for "reyes" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ʁɛɲ\ versus \ˈɾe.ʝes\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "règnes" or "reyes" show up more?
"reyes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,120 in our French list, against #31,235 for "règnes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "règnes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "reyes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #98,011 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "règnes" and "reyes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "reyes vs Rhys". 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 #98,011 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