Which to use
“récré” is a noun and “recruté” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #21,457
- “récré” frequency rank
- #10,930
- “recruté” frequency rank
- 32387
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | récré | recruté |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Période de la journée scolaire durant laquelle les enfants peuvent sortir et s’amuser. | Participe passé masculin singulier de recruter. |
Where the eye mixes récré and recruté
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. récré runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against recruté's 7 (CVCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: récré vs recruté
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: récré is \ʁe.kʁe\ while recruté is \ʁə.kʁy.te\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32387, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
récré is recorded at frequency rank #21,457, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁe.kʁe\. recruté is at rank #10,930, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.kʁy.te\.
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 32387, this pair ranks #297,627 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of récré vs recruté
Shared letters: cré. Private to "récré": -. Private to "recruté": etu.
"récré" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "recruté" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "récré" and "recruté" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "récré" or "recruté" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "récré" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "recruté" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #297,627 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "récré" and "recruté" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "recife vs récré". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #297,627 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.