Which to use
“rement” is a verb and “retenu” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #48,149
- “rement” frequency rank
- #4,613
- “retenu” frequency rank
- 52762
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | rement | retenu |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent du verbe rementir. | Qui est circonspect, sage, modéré, réservé. |
Where the eye mixes rement and retenu
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between rement and retenu
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: rement is \ʁə.mɑ̃\ while retenu is \ʁət.ny\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52762, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
rement is recorded at frequency rank #48,149, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.mɑ̃\. retenu is at rank #4,613, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ʁət.ny\.
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 52762, this pair ranks #145,478 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of rement vs retenu
Shared letters: enrt. Private to "rement": m. Private to "retenu": u.
"rement" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC · "retenu" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "rement" for "retenu" ever safe?
Which is more common, "rement" or "retenu"?
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 "rement" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "retenu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #145,478 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "rement" and "retenu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ramen vs rement". 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 #145,478 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.