reçoiventvsrecouvrentWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#5,497
“reçoivent” frequency rank
#26,152
“recouvrent” frequency rank
31649
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature reçoivent recouvrent
Definition Troisième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de recevoir. Troisième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent du verbe recouvrir.

Where the eye mixes reçoivent and recouvrent

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. reçoivent runs 9 letters (CVCVVCVCC) against recouvrent's 10 (CVCVVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
reçoivent
10 ch
recouvrent

Look-alike desk: reçoivent vs recouvrent

A purely visual mix-up. reçoivent (\ʁə.swav\) and recouvrent (\ʁə.kuvʁ\) 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 31649, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

reçoivent is recorded at frequency rank #5,497, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.swav\. recouvrent is at rank #26,152, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.kuvʁ\.

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 31649, this pair ranks #302,479 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of reçoivent vs recouvrent

Shared letters: enortv. Private to "reçoivent": iç. Private to "recouvrent": cu.

"reçoivent" · 9 letters · shape CVCVVCVCC  ·  "recouvrent" · 10 letters · shape CVCVVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • recouvrent ← ercouvrent · rceouvrent · reccouvrent · recourvent · recouvernt · recouvrennt · recouvrentt · recouvretn

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "reçoivent" for "recouvrent" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ʁə.swav\ versus \ʁə.kuvʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "reçoivent" or "recouvrent" show up more?
"reçoivent" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,497 in our French list, against #26,152 for "recouvrent". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "reçoivent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "recouvrent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #302,479 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "reçoivent" and "recouvrent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "recoupent vs recouvrent". 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 #302,479 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