recourentvsrecouvrentWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#44,134
“recourent” frequency rank
#26,152
“recouvrent” frequency rank
70286
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature recourent recouvrent
Definition Troisième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de recourir. Troisième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent du verbe recouvrir.

Where the eye mixes recourent and recouvrent

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. recourent 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
recourent
10 ch
recouvrent

Look-alike desk: recourent vs recouvrent

A purely visual mix-up. recourent (\ʁə.kuʁ\) 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 70286, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

recourent is recorded at frequency rank #44,134, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.kuʁ\. 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 70286, this pair ranks #51,927 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of recourent vs recouvrent

Shared letters: cenortu. Private to "recourent": -. Private to "recouvrent": v.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • recourentercourent · rceourent · reccourent · recoruent · recouernt · recourennt · recourentt · recouretn
  • recouvrentercouvrent · rceouvrent · reccouvrent · recourvent · recouvernt · recouvrennt · recouvrentt · recouvretn

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "recourent" for "recouvrent" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ʁə.kuʁ\ versus \ʁə.kuvʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "recourent" or "recouvrent"?
"recouvrent" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,152 in our French list, against #44,134 for "recourent". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "recourent" 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 #51,927 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "recourent" and "recouvrent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "recoupent vs recourent". 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 #51,927 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