ruevsrunWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“rue” and “run” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#438
“rue” frequency rank
#9,908
“run” frequency rank
10346
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rue run
Definition Voie de circulation d'une ville, d'un bourg, d'un village, etc., généralement bordée de maisons ou de propriétés closes. Nom de l’étendue de pâturages, en Australie, accordée aux propriétaires de troupeaux de moutons.

Where the eye mixes rue and run

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

3 ch
rue
3 ch
run

Visual trap between rue and run

A purely visual mix-up. rue (\ʁy\) and run (\ʁœn\) 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 a single letter - e in “rue” becomes n in “run”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10346, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rue is recorded at frequency rank #438, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁy\. run is at rank #9,908, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁœn\.

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 10346, this pair ranks #413,332 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of rue vs run

Shared letters: ru. Private to "rue": e. Private to "run": n.

"rue" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "run" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "rue" and "run" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ʁy\ versus \ʁœn\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "rue" vs "run" - which ranks higher?
"rue" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #438 in our French list, against #9,908 for "run". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "rue" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "run" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #413,332 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rue" and "run" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rog vs run". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #413,332 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