relayervsrelayésWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#20,547
“relayer” frequency rank
#42,575
“relayés” frequency rank
63122
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature relayer relayés
Definition Prendre des relais de chevaux frais. Participe passé masculin pluriel de relayer.

Where the eye mixes relayer and relayés

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. relayer and relayés follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
relayer
7 ch
relayés

Why the eye confuses relayer with relayés

A purely visual mix-up. relayer (\ʁə.le.je\) and relayés (\ʁə.lɛ.je\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63122, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

relayer is recorded at frequency rank #20,547, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.le.je\. relayés is at rank #42,575, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.lɛ.je\.

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 63122, this pair ranks #83,641 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of relayer vs relayés

Shared letters: aelry. Private to "relayer": -. Private to "relayés": sé.

"relayer" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVVC  ·  "relayés" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • relayer ← erlayer · realyer · relaeyr · relayerr · relayre · relayyer · rellayer · relyaer

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "relayer" and "relayés" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ʁə.le.je\ versus \ʁə.lɛ.je\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "relayer" vs "relayés" - which ranks higher?
"relayer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,547 in our French list, against #42,575 for "relayés". 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 "relayer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "relayés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #83,641 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "relayer" and "relayés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "relatés vs relayés". 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 #83,641 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