recherchentvsrecherchezWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#13,459
“recherchent” frequency rank
#23,336
“recherchez” frequency rank
36795
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature recherchent recherchez
Definition Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de rechercher. Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de rechercher.

Where the eye mixes recherchent and recherchez

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. recherchent runs 11 letters (CVCCVCCCVCC) against recherchez's 10 (CVCCVCCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

11 ch
recherchent
10 ch
recherchez

Look-alike desk: recherchent vs recherchez

A purely visual mix-up. recherchent (\ʁə.ʃɛʁʃ\) and recherchez (\ʁə.ʃɛʁ.ʃe\) 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 36795, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

recherchent is recorded at frequency rank #13,459, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.ʃɛʁʃ\. recherchez is at rank #23,336, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.ʃɛʁ.ʃe\.

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 36795, this pair ranks #267,075 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of recherchent vs recherchez

Shared letters: cehr. Private to "recherchent": nt. Private to "recherchez": z.

"recherchent" · 11 letters · shape CVCCVCCCVCC  ·  "recherchez" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • recherchent ← ercherchent · rceherchent · reccherchent · recehrchent · rechecrhent · rechercchent · rechercehnt · recherchennt
  • recherchez ← ercherchez · rceherchez · reccherchez · recehrchez · rechecrhez · rechercchez · rechercehz · recherchezz

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "recherchent" and "recherchez" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ʁə.ʃɛʁʃ\ versus \ʁə.ʃɛʁ.ʃe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "recherchent" or "recherchez" show up more?
"recherchent" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,459 in our French list, against #23,336 for "recherchez". 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 "recherchent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "recherchez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #267,075 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "recherchent" and "recherchez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "recherchaient vs recherchent". 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 #267,075 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