Which to use
“recalé” and “refilé” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #41,998
- “recalé” frequency rank
- #35,239
- “refilé” frequency rank
- 77237
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | recalé | refilé |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Participe passé masculin singulier du verbe recaler. | Participe passé masculin singulier de refiler. |
Where the eye mixes recalé and refilé
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. recalé and refilé follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: recalé vs refilé
A purely visual mix-up. recalé (\ʁə.ka.le\) and refilé (\ʁə.fi.le\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 77237, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
recalé is recorded at frequency rank #41,998, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.ka.le\. refilé is at rank #35,239, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.fi.le\.
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 77237, this pair ranks #28,978 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of recalé vs refilé
Shared letters: elré. Private to "recalé": ac. Private to "refilé": fi.
"recalé" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "refilé" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "recalé" and "refilé" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "recalé" or "refilé" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "recalé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "refilé" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #28,978 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "recalé" and "refilé" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "recalé vs rénal". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #28,978 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.