reconnaissevsreconnaissentWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#22,391
“reconnaisse” frequency rank
#8,609
“reconnaissent” frequency rank
31000
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature reconnaisse reconnaissent
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent du subjonctif de reconnaître (ou reconnaitre). Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de reconnaître (ou reconnaitre).

Same sound, different letters: reconnaisse vs reconnaissent

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 11 letters. reconnaisse runs 11 letters (CVCVCCVVCCV) against reconnaissent's 13 (CVCVCCVVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

11 ch
reconnaisse
13 ch
reconnaissent

Homophone desk: reconnaisse vs reconnaissent

This is the hard kind. reconnaisse and reconnaissent are pronounced identically (\ʁə.kɔ.nɛs\) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “reconnaisse” sits inside “reconnaissent”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31000, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

reconnaisse is recorded at frequency rank #22,391, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.kɔ.nɛs\. reconnaissent is at rank #8,609, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.kɔ.nɛs\.

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 31000, this pair ranks #306,647 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of reconnaisse vs reconnaissent

Shared letters: aceinors. Private to "reconnaisse": -. Private to "reconnaissent": t.

"reconnaisse" · 11 letters · shape CVCVCCVVCCV  ·  "reconnaissent" · 13 letters · shape CVCVCCVVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • reconnaisse ← erconnaisse · rceonnaisse · recconnaisse · recnonaisse · reconaisse · reconanisse · reconnaise · reconnaises
  • reconnaissent ← erconnaissent · rceonnaissent · recconnaissent · recnonaissent · reconaissent · reconanissent · reconnaisent · reconnaisesnt

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "reconnaisse" and "reconnaissent" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\ʁə.kɔ.nɛs\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
In ordinary French text, does "reconnaisse" or "reconnaissent" show up more?
"reconnaissent" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,609 in our French list, against #22,391 for "reconnaisse". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "reconnaisse" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "reconnaissent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #306,647 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "reconnaisse" and "reconnaissent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "reconnaissaient vs reconnaissent". 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 #306,647 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