roquesvsroutesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#48,771
“roques” frequency rank
#2,542
“routes” frequency rank
51313
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature roques routes
Definition Pluriel de roque. Pluriel de route.

Where the eye mixes roques and routes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. roques (CVCVVC) and routes (CVVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
roques
6 ch
routes

Why the eye confuses roques with routes

A purely visual mix-up. roques (\ʁɔk\) and routes (\ʁut\) 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 51313, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

roques is recorded at frequency rank #48,771, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁɔk\. routes is at rank #2,542, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁut\.

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 51313, this pair ranks #155,976 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of roques vs routes

Shared letters: eorsu. Private to "roques": q. Private to "routes": t.

"roques" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "routes" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • roques ← roqeus · roqques · roquess · roquse · rouqes · rqoues · rroques
  • routes ← orutes · rotues · rouets · routess · routse · routtes · rroutes · ruotes

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "roques" and "routes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ʁɔk\ versus \ʁut\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "roques" or "routes" show up more?
"routes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,542 in our French list, against #48,771 for "roques". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "roques" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "routes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #155,976 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "roques" and "routes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "roques vs rouet". 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 #155,976 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