reçuevsrécupTell them apart

Quick tell: reçue is a adjective, récup is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“reçue” is an adjective and “récup” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#7,894
“reçue” frequency rank
#27,952
“récup” frequency rank
35846
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature reçue récup
Definition Féminin singulier de reçu. Technique de restauration ou de création à partir d’objets anciens.

Where the eye mixes reçue and récup

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. reçue (CVCVV) and récup (CVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
reçue
5 ch
récup

Visual trap between reçue and récup

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: reçue is \ʁə.sy\ while récup is \ʁe.kyp\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35846, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

reçue is recorded at frequency rank #7,894, classified as anadj, pronounced \ʁə.sy\. récup is at rank #27,952, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁe.kyp\.

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 35846, this pair ranks #273,830 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of reçue vs récup

Shared letters: ru. Private to "reçue": eç. Private to "récup": cpé.

"reçue" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "récup" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "reçue" and "récup" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "reçue" is an adjective and "récup" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "reçue" vs "récup" - which ranks higher?
"reçue" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,894 in our French list, against #27,952 for "récup". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "reçue" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "récup" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #273,830 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "reçue" and "récup" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rébus vs récup". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #273,830 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