Which to use
“recourent” and “retournent” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #44,134
- “recourent” frequency rank
- #14,552
- “retournent” frequency rank
- 58686
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | recourent | retournent |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de recourir. | Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de retourner. |
Where the eye mixes recourent and retournent
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. recourent runs 9 letters (CVCVVCVCC) against retournent's 10 (CVCVVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: recourent vs retournent
A purely visual mix-up. recourent (\ʁə.kuʁ\) and retournent (\ʁə.tuʁn\) 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 58686, 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\. retournent is at rank #14,552, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.tuʁn\.
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 58686, this pair ranks #107,533 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of recourent vs retournent
Shared letters: enortu. Private to "recourent": c. Private to "retournent": -.
"recourent" · 9 letters · shape CVCVVCVCC · "retournent" · 10 letters · shape CVCVVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- recourent ← ercourent · rceourent · reccourent · recoruent · recouernt · recourennt · recourentt · recouretn
- retournent ← ertournent · reoturnent · retorunent · retounrent · retourennt · retournennt · retournentt · retournetn
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "recourent" for "retournent" ever safe?
Frequency check: "recourent" vs "retournent" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "recourent" and "retournent" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "recourent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "retournent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #107,533 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "recourent" and "retournent" 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 #107,533 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.