recevaientvsrevenaientTell them apart

Which to use

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

#25,468
“recevaient” frequency rank
#27,221
“revenaient” frequency rank
52689
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature recevaient revenaient
Definition Troisième personne du pluriel de l’imparfait de recevoir. Troisième personne du pluriel de l’imparfait de revenir.

Where the eye mixes recevaient and revenaient

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. recevaient and revenaient follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVVVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

10 ch
recevaient
10 ch
revenaient

Why the eye confuses recevaient with revenaient

A purely visual mix-up. recevaient (\ʁə.sə.vɛ\) and revenaient (\ʁə.və.nɛ\) 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 52689, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

recevaient is recorded at frequency rank #25,468, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.sə.vɛ\. revenaient is at rank #27,221, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.və.nɛ\.

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 52689, this pair ranks #145,942 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of recevaient vs revenaient

Shared letters: aeinrtv. Private to "recevaient": c. Private to "revenaient": -.

"recevaient" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCVVVCC  ·  "revenaient" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCVVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • recevaientercevaient · rceevaient · reccevaient · receavient · recevaeint · recevaiennt · recevaientt · recevaietn
  • revenaientervenaient · reevnaient · reveanient · revenaeint · revenaiennt · revenaientt · revenaietn · revenainet

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "recevaient" for "revenaient" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ʁə.sə.vɛ\ versus \ʁə.və.nɛ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "recevaient" vs "revenaient" - which ranks higher?
"recevaient" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,468 in our French list, against #27,221 for "revenaient". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "recevaient" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "revenaient" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #145,942 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "recevaient" and "revenaient" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "revenaient vs revendent". 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 #145,942 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