Which to use
“recourt” is a verb and “retours” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #33,431
- “recourt” frequency rank
- #6,651
- “retours” frequency rank
- 40082
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | recourt | retours |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de recourir. | Pluriel de retour. |
Where the eye mixes recourt and retours
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. recourt and retours follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses recourt with retours
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: recourt is \ʁə.kuʁ\ while retours is \ʁə.tuʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40082, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
recourt is recorded at frequency rank #33,431, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.kuʁ\. retours is at rank #6,651, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁə.tuʁ\.
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 40082, this pair ranks #243,181 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of recourt vs retours
Shared letters: eortu. Private to "recourt": c. Private to "retours": s.
"recourt" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCC · "retours" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "recourt" and "retours" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "recourt" or "retours"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "recourt" and "retours" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "recourt" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "retours" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #243,181 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "recourt" and "retours" 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 #243,181 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.