Which to use
“rou” and “rough” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #48,169
- “rou” frequency rank
- #38,518
- “rough” frequency rank
- 86687
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | rou | rough |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Synonyme de rohu (poisson). | Bordure non entretenue d’un terrain de golf. |
Where the eye mixes rou and rough
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: rou vs rough
A purely visual mix-up. rou (\ʁu\) and rough (\ʁœf\) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “rou” sits inside “rough”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 86687, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
rou is recorded at frequency rank #48,169, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁu\. rough is at rank #38,518, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁœf\.
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 86687, this pair ranks #9,326 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of rou vs rough
Shared letters: oru. Private to "rou": -. Private to "rough": gh.
"rou" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "rough" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- rough ← orugh · roguh · rouggh · roughh · rouhg · rrough · ruogh
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "rou" for "rough" ever safe?
Frequency check: "rou" vs "rough" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "rou" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "rough" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #9,326 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "rou" and "rough" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rou vs roya". 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 #9,326 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.