renardsvsretardeWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: renards is a noun, retarde is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“renards” is a noun and “retarde” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#26,849
“renards” frequency rank
#26,160
“retarde” frequency rank
53009
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature renards retarde
Definition Pluriel de renard. Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de retarder.

Where the eye mixes renards and retarde

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
renards
7 ch
retarde

Visual trap between renards and retarde

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: renards is \ʁə.naʁ\ while retarde is \ʁə.taʁd\. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53009, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

renards is recorded at frequency rank #26,849, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁə.naʁ\. retarde is at rank #26,160, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.taʁd\.

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 53009, this pair ranks #143,705 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of renards vs retarde

Shared letters: ader. Private to "renards": ns. Private to "retarde": t.

"renards" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCC  ·  "retarde" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • renardsernards · reanrds · renadrs · renardds · renardss · renarrds · renarsd · rennards
  • retardeertarde · reatrde · retadre · retardde · retared · retarrde · retrade · rettarde

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "renards" and "retarde" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "renards" is a noun and "retarde" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "renards" or "retarde"?
"retarde" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,160 in our French list, against #26,849 for "renards". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "renards" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "retarde" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #143,705 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "renards" and "retarde" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rénales vs renards". 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 #143,705 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