Which to use
“rougir” is a verb and “roulis” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #19,395
- “rougir” frequency rank
- #44,150
- “roulis” frequency rank
- 63545
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | rougir | roulis |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Rendre rouge ; peindre ou teindre en rouge. | Balancement d’un navire qui roule, qui penche alternativement de droite à gauche et de gauche à droite. |
Where the eye mixes rougir and roulis
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. rougir and roulis follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses rougir with roulis
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: rougir is [ʁu.ʒiʁ] while roulis is \ʁu.li\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63545, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
rougir is recorded at frequency rank #19,395, classified as averb, pronounced [ʁu.ʒiʁ]. roulis is at rank #44,150, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁu.li\.
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 63545, this pair ranks #81,452 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of rougir vs roulis
Shared letters: ioru. Private to "rougir": g. Private to "roulis": ls.
"rougir" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "roulis" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "rougir" for "roulis" ever safe?
Which is more common, "rougir" or "roulis"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "rougir" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "roulis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #81,452 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "rougir" and "roulis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rotules vs roulis". 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 #81,452 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.