relaievsrelatésConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#36,563
“relaie” frequency rank
#48,148
“relatés” frequency rank
84711
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature relaie relatés
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de relayer. Participe passé masculin pluriel de relater.

Where the eye mixes relaie and relatés

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. relaie runs 6 letters (CVCVVV) against relatés's 7 (CVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
relaie
7 ch
relatés

Why the eye confuses relaie with relatés

A purely visual mix-up. relaie (\ʁə.lɛ\) and relatés (\ʁə.la.te\) 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 84711, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

relaie is recorded at frequency rank #36,563, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.lɛ\. relatés is at rank #48,148, 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 84711, this pair ranks #12,492 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of relaie vs relatés

Shared letters: aelr. Private to "relaie": i. Private to "relatés": sté.

"relaie" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVV  ·  "relatés" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • relaie ← erlaie · realie · relaei · reliae · rellaie · rleaie · rrelaie

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "relaie" for "relatés" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ʁə.lɛ\ versus \ʁə.la.te\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "relaie" or "relatés" show up more?
"relaie" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #36,563 in our French list, against #48,148 for "relatés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "relaie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "relatés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #12,492 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "relaie" and "relatés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "relatés vs rénales". 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 #12,492 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