Which to use
“remorquer” and “rétorqué” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #45,835
- “remorquer” frequency rank
- #49,929
- “rétorqué” frequency rank
- 95764
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | remorquer | rétorqué |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Traîner derrière soi, en parlant d'un bateau, des wagons, etc. | Participe passé masculin singulier de rétorquer. |
Where the eye mixes remorquer and rétorqué
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between remorquer and rétorqué
A purely visual mix-up. remorquer (\ʁə.mɔʁ.ke\) and rétorqué (\ʁe.tɔʁ.ke\) 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 95764, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
remorquer is recorded at frequency rank #45,835, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.mɔʁ.ke\. rétorqué is at rank #49,929, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁe.tɔʁ.ke\.
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 95764, this pair ranks #960 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of remorquer vs rétorqué
Shared letters: oqru. Private to "remorquer": em. Private to "rétorqué": té.
"remorquer" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCVVC · "rétorqué" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- remorquer ← ermorquer · remmorquer · remoqruer · remorqeur · remorqquer · remorquerr · remorqure · remorrquer
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "remorquer" for "rétorqué" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "remorquer" or "rétorqué" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "remorquer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "rétorqué" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #960 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "remorquer" and "rétorqué" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "retordre vs rétorqué". 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 #960 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.