repèrevsreportWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#9,735
“repère” frequency rank
#7,109
“report” frequency rank
16844
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature repère report
Definition Trait, marque que l’on fait pour retrouver une hauteur, une distance, un alignement, pour ajuster avec exactitude différentes pièces d’un ouvrage. Action de reporter une somme, un total.

Where the eye mixes repère and report

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
repère
6 ch
report

Visual trap between repère and report

A purely visual mix-up. repère (\ʁə.pɛʁ\) and report (\ʁə.pɔʁ\) 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 16844, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

repère is recorded at frequency rank #9,735, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁə.pɛʁ\. report is at rank #7,109, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁə.pɔʁ\.

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 16844, this pair ranks #386,004 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of repère vs report

Shared letters: epr. Private to "repère": è. Private to "report": ot.

"repère" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "report" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • reporterport · reoprt · reporrt · reportt · repotr · repport · reprot · rpeort

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "repère" for "report" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ʁə.pɛʁ\ versus \ʁə.pɔʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "repère" or "report"?
"report" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,109 in our French list, against #9,735 for "repère". 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 "repère" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "report" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #386,004 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "repère" and "report" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "reparlé vs repère". 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 #386,004 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