retardéevsretardésWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: retardée is a noun, retardés is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“retardée” is a noun and “retardés” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#25,112
“retardée” frequency rank
#39,506
“retardés” frequency rank
64618
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature retardée retardés
Definition Femme qui a été retardée. Masculin pluriel de retardé.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set retardée and retardés apart are highlighted. They share 7 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

8 ch
retardée
8 ch
retardés

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: retardée and retardés carry the same recorded pronunciation, \ʁə.taʁ.de\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by a single letter - e in “retardée” becomes s in “retardés”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64618, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

retardée is recorded at frequency rank #25,112, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁə.taʁ.de\. retardés is at rank #39,506, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ʁə.taʁ.de\.

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 64618, this pair ranks #76,180 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of retardée vs retardés

Shared letters: aderté. Private to "retardée": -. Private to "retardés": s.

"retardée" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVV  ·  "retardés" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC

Frequency comparison

retardée#25,112
retardés#39,506

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "retardée" and "retardés" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "retardée" is a noun and "retardés" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "retardée" or "retardés"?
"retardée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,112 in our French list, against #39,506 for "retardés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering retardée vs retardés

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list