rattrapévsrattrapésTell them apart

Which to use

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

#16,718
“rattrapé” frequency rank
#48,141
“rattrapés” frequency rank
64859
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rattrapé rattrapés
Definition Participe passé masculin singulier de rattraper. Participe passé masculin pluriel de rattraper.

Same sound, different letters: rattrapé vs rattrapés

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. rattrapé runs 8 letters (CVCCCVCV) against rattrapés's 9 (CVCCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
rattrapé
9 ch
rattrapés

Homophone desk: rattrapé vs rattrapés

This is the hard kind. rattrapé and rattrapés are pronounced identically (\ʁa.tʁa.pe\) and both work as averb. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “rattrapé” sits inside “rattrapés”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64859, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rattrapé is recorded at frequency rank #16,718, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁa.tʁa.pe\. rattrapés is at rank #48,141, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁa.tʁa.pe\.

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 64859, this pair ranks #75,018 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of rattrapé vs rattrapés

Shared letters: aprté. Private to "rattrapé": -. Private to "rattrapés": s.

"rattrapé" · 8 letters · shape CVCCCVCV  ·  "rattrapés" · 9 letters · shape CVCCCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "rattrapé" and "rattrapés" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\ʁa.tʁa.pe\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "rattrapé" vs "rattrapés" - which ranks higher?
"rattrapé" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,718 in our French list, against #48,141 for "rattrapés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've separated the homophone pair "rattrapé" / "rattrapés". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "rattrapé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rattrapés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #75,018 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rattrapé" and "rattrapés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rattrapent vs rattrapés". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #75,018 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