roulezvsruleTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#29,126
“roulez” frequency rank
#39,521
“rule” frequency rank
68647
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature roulez rule
Definition Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de rouler. Règle (ordre).

Where the eye mixes roulez and rule

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
roulez
4 ch
rule

Visual trap between roulez and rule

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: roulez is \ʁu.le\ while rule is \ɹuːl\. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68647, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

roulez is recorded at frequency rank #29,126, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁu.le\. rule is at rank #39,521, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɹuːl\.

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 68647, this pair ranks #58,292 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of roulez vs rule

Shared letters: elru. Private to "roulez": oz. Private to "rule": -.

"roulez" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "rule" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • roulezorulez · roluez · rouelz · roulezz · roullez · roulze · rroulez · ruolez
  • rulerlue · rrule · ruel · rulle · urle

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "roulez" and "rule" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "roulez" is a verb and "rule" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "roulez" or "rule" show up more?
"roulez" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,126 in our French list, against #39,521 for "rule". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "roulez" and "rule" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "roulez" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rule" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #58,292 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "roulez" and "rule" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "râles vs rule". 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 #58,292 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