Which to use
“recouper” and “reculer” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #48,753
- “recouper” frequency rank
- #8,452
- “reculer” frequency rank
- 57205
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | recouper | reculer |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Couper de nouveau. | Tirer ou pousser un objet en arrière. |
Where the eye mixes recouper and reculer
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. recouper runs 8 letters (CVCVVCVC) against reculer's 7 (CVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses recouper with reculer
A purely visual mix-up. recouper (\ʁə.ku.pe\) and reculer (\ʁə.ky.le\) 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 57205, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
recouper is recorded at frequency rank #48,753, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.ku.pe\. reculer is at rank #8,452, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.ky.le\.
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 57205, this pair ranks #116,426 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of recouper vs reculer
Shared letters: ceru. Private to "recouper": op. Private to "reculer": l.
"recouper" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCVC · "reculer" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "recouper" and "reculer" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "recouper" or "reculer" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "recouper" and "reculer" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "recouper" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "reculer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #116,426 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "recouper" and "reculer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "recoucher vs recouper". 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 #116,426 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.