rowvsroyaTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#33,451
“row” frequency rank
#49,922
“roya” frequency rank
83373
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature row roya
Definition Ligne, rangée. Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de royer.

Where the eye mixes row and roya

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
row
4 ch
roya

Why the eye confuses row with roya

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: row is \ɹoʊ\ while roya is \ʁwa.ja\. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 83373, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

row is recorded at frequency rank #33,451, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɹoʊ\. roya is at rank #49,922, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁwa.ja\.

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 83373, this pair ranks #14,962 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of row vs roya

Shared letters: or. Private to "row": w. Private to "roya": ay.

"row" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "roya" · 4 letters · shape CVVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • royaorya · roay · royya · rroya · ryoa

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "row" for "roya" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "row" is a noun and "roya" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "row" or "roya"?
"row" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33,451 in our French list, against #49,922 for "roya". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "row" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "roya" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #14,962 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "row" and "roya" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Rhys 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 #14,962 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