reusvsrueWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#38,513
“reus” frequency rank
#438
“rue” frequency rank
38951
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature reus rue
Definition Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif passé simple du verbe ravoir. Voie de circulation d'une ville, d'un bourg, d'un village, etc., généralement bordée de maisons ou de propriétés closes.

Same sound, different letters: reus vs rue

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 2 letters.

4 ch
reus
3 ch
rue

Same sound, different spelling - reus / rue

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: reus and rue carry the same recorded pronunciation, \ʁy\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is averb, the other anoun, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38951, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

reus is recorded at frequency rank #38,513, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁy\. rue is at rank #438, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁy\.

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 38951, this pair ranks #251,634 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of reus vs rue

Shared letters: eru. Private to "reus": s. Private to "rue": -.

"reus" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "rue" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • reuserus · resu · rreus

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "reus" and "rue" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "reus" is a verb and "rue" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "reus" vs "rue" - which ranks higher?
"rue" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #438 in our French list, against #38,513 for "reus". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

You've separated the homophone pair "reus" / "rue". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "reus" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #251,634 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "reus" and "rue" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "reus vs Rhys". 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 #251,634 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