rattrapéevsrattrapésTell them apart

Which to use

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

#39,006
“rattrapée” frequency rank
#48,141
“rattrapés” frequency rank
87147
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rattrapée rattrapés
Definition Participe passé féminin singulier de rattraper. Participe passé masculin pluriel de rattraper.

Same sound, different letters: rattrapée vs rattrapés

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. rattrapée (CVCCCVCVV) and rattrapés (CVCCCVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

9 ch
rattrapée
9 ch
rattrapés

Ear matches; page differs - rattrapée and rattrapés

This is the hard kind. rattrapée 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 a single letter - e in “rattrapée” becomes s in “rattrapés”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 87147, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rattrapée is recorded at frequency rank #39,006, 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 87147, this pair ranks #8,707 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of rattrapée vs rattrapés

Shared letters: aprté. Private to "rattrapée": e. Private to "rattrapés": s.

"rattrapée" · 9 letters · shape CVCCCVCVV  ·  "rattrapés" · 9 letters · shape CVCCCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "rattrapée" for "rattrapés" ever safe?
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.
In ordinary French text, does "rattrapée" or "rattrapés" show up more?
"rattrapée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #39,006 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.

What to do next

"rattrapée" and "rattrapés" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "rattrapée" 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 #8,707 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rattrapée" and "rattrapés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rattrapent vs rattrapés". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #8,707 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