Which to use
“recent” and “récents” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #40,953
- “recent” frequency rank
- #5,917
- “récents” frequency rank
- 46870
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | recent | récents |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Récent. | Masculin pluriel de récent. |
Where the eye mixes recent and récents
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. recent runs 6 letters (CVCVCC) against récents's 7 (CVCVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: recent vs récents
A purely visual mix-up. recent (\ˈɹiː.sənt\) and récents (\ʁe.sɑ̃\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46870, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
recent is recorded at frequency rank #40,953, classified as anadj, pronounced \ˈɹiː.sənt\. récents is at rank #5,917, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ʁe.sɑ̃\.
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 46870, this pair ranks #191,400 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of recent vs récents
Shared letters: cenrt. Private to "recent": -. Private to "récents": sé.
"recent" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC · "récents" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- recent ← ercent · rceent · reccent · recennt · recentt · recetn · recnet · reecnt
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "recent" and "récents" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "recent" or "récents"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "recent" and "récents" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "recent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "récents" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #191,400 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "recent" and "récents" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "recèlent vs recent". 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 #191,400 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.