Which to use
“relevez” and “retenez” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #45,276
- “relevez” frequency rank
- #19,139
- “retenez” frequency rank
- 64415
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | relevez | retenez |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de relever. | Deuxième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de retenir. |
Where the eye mixes relevez and retenez
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. relevez and retenez follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between relevez and retenez
A purely visual mix-up. relevez (\ʁə.lə.ve\) and retenez (\ʁə.tə.ne\) 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 64415, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
relevez is recorded at frequency rank #45,276, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.lə.ve\. retenez is at rank #19,139, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.tə.ne\.
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 64415, this pair ranks #77,199 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of relevez vs retenez
Shared letters: erz. Private to "relevez": lv. Private to "retenez": nt.
"relevez" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC · "retenez" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "relevez" and "retenez" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "relevez" vs "retenez" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "relevez" and "retenez" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "relevez" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "retenez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #77,199 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "relevez" and "retenez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "releveur vs relevez". 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 #77,199 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.