recourirvsrecourtTell them apart

Which to use

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

#9,547
“recourir” frequency rank
#33,431
“recourt” frequency rank
42978
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature recourir recourt
Definition Courir de nouveau. Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de recourir.

Where the eye mixes recourir and recourt

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. recourir runs 8 letters (CVCVVCVC) against recourt's 7 (CVCVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
recourir
7 ch
recourt

Why the eye confuses recourir with recourt

A purely visual mix-up. recourir (\ʁə.ku.ʁiʁ\) and recourt (\ʁə.kuʁ\) 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 42978, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

recourir is recorded at frequency rank #9,547, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.ku.ʁiʁ\. recourt is at rank #33,431, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.kuʁ\.

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 42978, this pair ranks #221,513 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of recourir vs recourt

Shared letters: ceoru. Private to "recourir": i. Private to "recourt": t.

"recourir" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCVC  ·  "recourt" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • recourir ← ercourir · rceourir · reccourir · recoruir · recouirr · recourirr · recourri · recourrir
  • recourt ← ercourt · rceourt · reccourt · recorut · recourrt · recourtt · recoutr · recuort

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "recourir" for "recourt" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ʁə.ku.ʁiʁ\ versus \ʁə.kuʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "recourir" vs "recourt" - which ranks higher?
"recourir" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,547 in our French list, against #33,431 for "recourt". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "recourir" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "recourt" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #221,513 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "recourir" and "recourt" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "recourt vs recouvré". 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 #221,513 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