roulaitvsroulisWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: roulait is a verb, roulis is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“roulait” is a verb and “roulis” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#19,973
“roulait” frequency rank
#44,150
“roulis” frequency rank
64123
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature roulait roulis
Definition Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de rouler. Balancement d’un navire qui roule, qui penche alternativement de droite à gauche et de gauche à droite.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set roulait and roulis apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

7 ch
roulait
6 ch
roulis

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: roulait is \ʁu.lɛ\ while roulis is \ʁu.li\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64123, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

roulait is recorded at frequency rank #19,973, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁu.lɛ\. 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 64123, this pair ranks #78,578 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of roulait vs roulis

Shared letters: iloru. Private to "roulait": at. Private to "roulis": s.

"roulait" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVVC  ·  "roulis" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • roulaitorulait · roluait · roualit · roulaitt · roulati · rouliat · roullait · rroulait
  • roulisorulis · roluis · rouils · rouliss · roullis · roulsi · rroulis · ruolis

Frequency comparison

roulait#19,973
roulis#44,150

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "roulait" and "roulis" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "roulait" is a verb and "roulis" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "roulait" or "roulis"?
"roulait" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,973 in our French list, against #44,150 for "roulis". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering roulait vs roulis

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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