rôlevsroulésWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#606
“rôle” frequency rank
#30,786
“roulés” frequency rank
31392
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rôle roulés
Definition Rouleau de papier, de parchemin, sur lequel on écrivait des actes, des titres. Masculin pluriel de roulé.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set rôle and roulés apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch
rôle
6 ch
roulés

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: rôle is \ʁol\ while roulés is \ʁu.le\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31392, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rôle is recorded at frequency rank #606, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁol\. roulés is at rank #30,786, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ʁu.le\.

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 31392, this pair ranks #304,075 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of rôle vs roulés

Shared letters: lr. Private to "rôle": . Private to "roulés": osué.

"rôle" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "roulés" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Frequency comparison

rôle#606
roulés#30,786

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "rôle" and "roulés" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "rôle" is a noun and "roulés" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "rôle" or "roulés"?
"rôle" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #606 in our French list, against #30,786 for "roulés". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering rôle vs roulés

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “rôle”; for an adjective, it's “roulés”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “rôle” 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