Which to use
“rechercher” is a verb and “recherchés” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #5,601
- “rechercher” frequency rank
- #14,547
- “recherchés” frequency rank
- 20148
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | rechercher | recherchés |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Chercher avec soin. | Masculin pluriel de recherché. |
Same sound, different letters: rechercher vs recherchés
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. rechercher and recherchés follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Same sound, different spelling - rechercher / recherchés
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: rechercher and recherchés carry the same recorded pronunciation, \ʁə.ʃɛʁ.ʃe\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is averb, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20148, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
rechercher is recorded at frequency rank #5,601, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.ʃɛʁ.ʃe\. recherchés is at rank #14,547, tagged as anadj, 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 20148, this pair ranks #369,723 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of rechercher vs recherchés
Shared letters: cehr. Private to "rechercher": -. Private to "recherchés": sé.
"rechercher" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCCVC · "recherchés" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- rechercher ← erchercher · rcehercher · recchercher · recehrcher · rechecrher · recherccher · rechercehr · rechercherr
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "rechercher" for "recherchés" ever safe?
Frequency check: "rechercher" vs "recherchés" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "rechercher" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "recherchés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #369,723 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "rechercher" and "recherchés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "recherchais vs recherchés". 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 #369,723 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.