Which to use
“recouper” and “refouler” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #48,753
- “recouper” frequency rank
- #32,152
- “refouler” frequency rank
- 80905
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | recouper | refouler |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Couper de nouveau. | Fouler (presser) de nouveau. |
Where the eye mixes recouper and refouler
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. recouper and refouler follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between recouper and refouler
A purely visual mix-up. recouper (\ʁə.ku.pe\) and refouler (\ʁə.fu.le\) 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 80905, 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\. refouler is at rank #32,152, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.fu.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 80905, this pair ranks #19,879 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of recouper vs refouler
Shared letters: eoru. Private to "recouper": cp. Private to "refouler": fl.
"recouper" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCVC · "refouler" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "recouper" for "refouler" ever safe?
Which is more common, "recouper" or "refouler"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "recouper" and "refouler" 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 "refouler" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #19,879 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "recouper" and "refouler" 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 #19,879 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.