récentsvsrepentiWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: récents is a adjective, repenti is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“récents” is an adjective and “repenti” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#5,917
“récents” frequency rank
#38,011
“repenti” frequency rank
43928
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature récents repenti
Definition Masculin pluriel de récent. Personne qui fait acte de repentance.

Where the eye mixes récents and repenti

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. récents (CVCVCCC) and repenti (CVCVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
récents
7 ch
repenti

Why the eye confuses récents with repenti

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: récents is \ʁe.sɑ̃\ while repenti is \ʁə.pɑ̃.ti\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43928, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

récents is recorded at frequency rank #5,917, classified as anadj, pronounced \ʁe.sɑ̃\. repenti is at rank #38,011, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁə.pɑ̃.ti\.

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 43928, this pair ranks #214,294 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of récents vs repenti

Shared letters: enrt. Private to "récents": csé. Private to "repenti": ip.

"récents" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCC  ·  "repenti" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • repenti ← erpenti · reepnti · repennti · repentti · repetni · repneti · reppenti · rpeenti

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "récents" for "repenti" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "récents" is an adjective and "repenti" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "récents" or "repenti"?
"récents" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,917 in our French list, against #38,011 for "repenti". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "récents" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "repenti" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #214,294 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "récents" and "repenti" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rement vs repenti". 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 #214,294 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