retirervsretireraConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#2,448
“retirer” frequency rank
#43,118
“retirera” frequency rank
45566
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature retirer retirera
Definition Tirer à nouveau. Troisième personne du singulier du futur de retirer.

Where the eye mixes retirer and retirera

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. retirer runs 7 letters (CVCVCVC) against retirera's 8 (CVCVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
retirer
8 ch
retirera

Why the eye confuses retirer with retirera

A purely visual mix-up. retirer (\ʁə.ti.ʁe\) and retirera (\ʁə.ti.ʁə.ʁa\) 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 extra letter(s) - “retirer” sits inside “retirera”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45566, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

retirer is recorded at frequency rank #2,448, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.ti.ʁe\. retirera is at rank #43,118, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.ti.ʁə.ʁa\.

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 45566, this pair ranks #201,748 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of retirer vs retirera

Shared letters: eirt. Private to "retirer": -. Private to "retirera": a.

"retirer" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "retirera" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • retirerertirer · reitrer · retierr · retirerr · retirre · retirrer · retrier · rettirer
  • retireraertirera · reitrera · retierra · retirear · retirerra · retirrea · retirrera · retriera

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "retirer" for "retirera" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ʁə.ti.ʁe\ versus \ʁə.ti.ʁə.ʁa\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "retirer" or "retirera"?
"retirer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,448 in our French list, against #43,118 for "retirera". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "retirer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "retirera" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #201,748 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "retirer" and "retirera" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rentrera vs retirera". 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 #201,748 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