Which to use
“robin” and “ruban” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #4,983
- “robin” frequency rank
- #10,400
- “ruban” frequency rank
- 15383
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | robin | ruban |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Personne de peu, prétentieuse ou sotte. | Bande étroite de tissu qui est plate et mince. |
Where the eye mixes robin and ruban
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between robin and ruban
A purely visual mix-up. robin (\ʁɔ.bɛ̃\) and ruban (\ʁy.bɑ̃\) 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 15383, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
robin is recorded at frequency rank #4,983, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁɔ.bɛ̃\. ruban is at rank #10,400, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁy.bɑ̃\.
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 15383, this pair ranks #392,610 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of robin vs ruban
Shared letters: bnr. Private to "robin": io. Private to "ruban": au.
"robin" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "ruban" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "robin" for "ruban" ever safe?
Frequency check: "robin" vs "ruban" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "robin" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "ruban" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #392,610 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "robin" and "ruban" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ruban vs rubio". 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 #392,610 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.