reçoisvsrefaisWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#6,232
“reçois” frequency rank
#15,992
“refais” frequency rank
22224
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature reçois refais
Definition Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de recevoir. Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de refaire.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set reçois and refais apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
reçois
6 ch
refais

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. reçois (\ʁə.swa\) and refais (\ʁə.fɛ\) 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 22224, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

reçois is recorded at frequency rank #6,232, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.swa\. refais is at rank #15,992, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.fɛ\.

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 22224, this pair ranks #359,190 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of reçois vs refais

Shared letters: eirs. Private to "reçois": . Private to "refais": af.

"reçois" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "refais" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • refaiserfais · reafis · refaiss · refasi · reffais · refias · rfeais · rrefais

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "reçois" and "refais" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ʁə.swa\ versus \ʁə.fɛ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "reçois" or "refais"?
"reçois" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,232 in our French list, against #15,992 for "refais". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list