reinvsrequinWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#10,931
“rein” frequency rank
#9,907
“requin” frequency rank
20838
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rein requin
Definition Organe pair, situé dans l’abdomen, en arrière du péritoine, au niveau de la douzième paire de côtes (flottantes), qui assure, par filtration et excrétion d’urine, l’élimination des toxiques et l’équilibre hydroélectrolytique du sang et de l’organisme en général. Espèce de poisson de mer prédateur de la classe des chondrichthyens (Chondrichthyens), à la silhouette fuselée, hydrodynamique, ayant plusieurs rangées de dents tranchantes à chacune des 2 mâchoires, une nageoire dorsale, deux pectorales, et une nageoire caudale hétérocerque (asymétrique), ayant cinq à sept fentes branchiales sur le côté, et une peau rugueuse (denticules dermiques).

Where the eye mixes rein and requin

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. rein runs 4 letters (CVVC) against requin's 6 (CVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
rein
6 ch
requin

Visual trap between rein and requin

A purely visual mix-up. rein (\ʁɛ̃\) and requin (\ʁə.kɛ̃\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20838, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rein is recorded at frequency rank #10,931, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁɛ̃\. requin is at rank #9,907, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁə.kɛ̃\.

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 20838, this pair ranks #366,222 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of rein vs requin

Shared letters: einr. Private to "rein": -. Private to "requin": qu.

"rein" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "requin" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • rein ← erin · reinn · reni · rrein
  • requin ← erquin · reqiun · reqquin · requinn · requni · reuqin · rqeuin · rrequin

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "rein" and "requin" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ʁɛ̃\ versus \ʁə.kɛ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "rein" or "requin" show up more?
"requin" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,907 in our French list, against #10,931 for "rein". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "rein" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "requin" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #366,222 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rein" and "requin" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rein vs relit". 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 #366,222 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