récifvsreçoitTell them apart

Quick tell: récif is a noun, reçoit is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“récif” is a noun and “reçoit” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#31,238
“récif” frequency rank
#2,450
“reçoit” frequency rank
33688
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature récif reçoit
Definition Rocher ou chaîne de rochers à fleur d’eau, dans la mer. Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de recevoir.

Where the eye mixes récif and reçoit

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. récif runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against reçoit's 6 (CVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
récif
6 ch
reçoit

Why the eye confuses récif with reçoit

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: récif is \ʁe.sif\ while reçoit is \ʁə.swa\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33688, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

récif is recorded at frequency rank #31,238, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁe.sif\. reçoit is at rank #2,450, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.swa\.

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 33688, this pair ranks #288,957 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of récif vs reçoit

Shared letters: ir. Private to "récif": cfé. Private to "reçoit": eotç.

"récif" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "reçoit" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "récif" and "reçoit" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "récif" is a noun and "reçoit" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "récif" or "reçoit" show up more?
"reçoit" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,450 in our French list, against #31,238 for "récif". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "récif" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "reçoit" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #288,957 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "récif" and "reçoit" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "récif vs relit". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #288,957 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