recrutéevsrecrutentWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#37,028
“recrutée” frequency rank
#23,339
“recrutent” frequency rank
60367
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature recrutée recrutent
Definition Participe passé féminin singulier de recruter. Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de recruter.

Where the eye mixes recrutée and recrutent

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. recrutée runs 8 letters (CVCCVCVV) against recrutent's 9 (CVCCVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
recrutée
9 ch
recrutent

Visual trap between recrutée and recrutent

A purely visual mix-up. recrutée (\ʁə.kʁy.te\) and recrutent (\ʁə.kʁyt\) 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 60367, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

recrutée is recorded at frequency rank #37,028, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.kʁy.te\. recrutent is at rank #23,339, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.kʁyt\.

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 60367, this pair ranks #97,962 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of recrutée vs recrutent

Shared letters: certu. Private to "recrutée": é. Private to "recrutent": n.

"recrutée" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVV  ·  "recrutent" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • recrutent ← ercrutent · rcerutent · reccrutent · recrrutent · recrtuent · recruetnt · recrutennt · recrutentt

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "recrutée" and "recrutent" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ʁə.kʁy.te\ versus \ʁə.kʁyt\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "recrutée" or "recrutent" show up more?
"recrutent" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,339 in our French list, against #37,028 for "recrutée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "recrutée" and "recrutent" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "recrutée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "recrutent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #97,962 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "recrutée" and "recrutent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "récoltée vs recrutée". 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 #97,962 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