retard vs retarde, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#1,494
“retard” frequency rank: #26,160
“retarde” frequency rank: 27654
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	retard	retarde
Definition	Fait d’arriver, de se produire plus tard que prévu, d’agir trop tard ; délai, remise, ralentissement.	Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de retarder.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set retard and retarde apart are highlighted. They share 6 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch

retard

7 ch

retarde

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: retard is \ʁə.taʁ\ while retarde is \ʁə.taʁd\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “retard” sits inside “retarde”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27654, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

retard is recorded at frequency rank #1,494, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁə.taʁ\. 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 27654, this pair ranks #327,689 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of retard vs retarde

Shared letters: adert. Private to "retard": -. Private to "retarde": -.

"retard" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC · "retarde" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

retard ← ertard · reatrd · retadr · retardd · retarrd · retrad · rettard · rretard
retarde ← ertarde · reatrde · retadre · retardde · retared · retarrde · retrade · rettarde

Frequency comparison

retard#1,494

retarde#26,160

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "retard" and "retarde" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "retard" is a noun and "retarde" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "retard" or "retarde"?

"retard" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,494 in our French list, against #26,160 for "retarde". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering retard vs retarde

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “retard”; for a verb, it's “retarde”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “retard” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable