recherchervsrecherchezConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#5,601
“rechercher” frequency rank
#23,336
“recherchez” frequency rank
28937
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rechercher recherchez
Definition Chercher avec soin. Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de rechercher.

Same sound, different letters: rechercher vs recherchez

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 9 letters. rechercher and recherchez follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

10 ch
rechercher
10 ch
recherchez

Ear matches; page differs - rechercher and recherchez

This is the hard kind. rechercher and recherchez are pronounced identically (\ʁə.ʃɛʁ.ʃe\) and both work as averb. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by a single letter - r in “rechercher” becomes z in “recherchez”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28937, 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\. 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 28937, this pair ranks #319,717 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of rechercher vs recherchez

Shared letters: cehr. Private to "rechercher": -. Private to "recherchez": z.

"rechercher" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCCVC  ·  "recherchez" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • rechercher ← erchercher · rcehercher · recchercher · recehrcher · rechecrher · recherccher · rechercehr · rechercherr
  • recherchez ← ercherchez · rceherchez · reccherchez · recehrchez · rechecrhez · rechercchez · rechercehz · recherchezz

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "rechercher" and "recherchez" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\ʁə.ʃɛʁ.ʃe\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Which is more common, "rechercher" or "recherchez"?
"rechercher" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,601 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.

What to do next

"rechercher" and "recherchez" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "rechercher" 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 #319,717 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rechercher" and "recherchez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "recherchées vs recherchez". 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 #319,717 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