Which to use
“recto” and “reste” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #24,355
- “recto” frequency rank
- #205
- “reste” frequency rank
- 24560
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | recto | reste |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première page d’un feuillet, par opposition au verso, qui est la seconde page, celle qui se trouve au revers du feuillet. | Ce qui demeure d’un tout, d’une plus grande quantité ; ce qui subsiste d’une chose passée, tant au sens physique qu’au sens moral. |
Where the eye mixes recto and reste
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: recto vs reste
A purely visual mix-up. recto (\ʁɛk.to\) and reste (\ʁɛst\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24560, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
recto is recorded at frequency rank #24,355, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁɛk.to\. reste is at rank #205, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁɛst\.
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 24560, this pair ranks #345,920 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of recto vs reste
Shared letters: ert. Private to "recto": co. Private to "reste": s.
"recto" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "reste" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "recto" and "reste" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "recto" or "reste"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "recto" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "reste" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #345,920 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "recto" and "reste" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Recep vs recto". 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 #345,920 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.