reculéevsreculerWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: reculée is a noun, reculer is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“reculée” is a noun and “reculer” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#39,008
“reculée” frequency rank
#8,452
“reculer” frequency rank
47460
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature reculée reculer
Definition Espace qui permet de se reculer. Tirer ou pousser un objet en arrière.

Same sound, different letters: reculée vs reculer

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. reculée (CVCVCVV) and reculer (CVCVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
reculée
7 ch
reculer

Same sound, different spelling - reculée / reculer

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: reculée and reculer carry the same recorded pronunciation, \ʁə.ky.le\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47460, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

reculée is recorded at frequency rank #39,008, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁə.ky.le\. reculer is at rank #8,452, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.ky.le\.

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 47460, this pair ranks #186,747 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of reculée vs reculer

Shared letters: celru. Private to "reculée": é. Private to "reculer": -.

"reculée" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV  ·  "reculer" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • reculer ← erculer · rceuler · recculer · recluer · recuelr · reculerr · reculler · reculre

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "reculée" and "reculer" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "reculée" is a noun and "reculer" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "reculée" vs "reculer" - which ranks higher?
"reculer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,452 in our French list, against #39,008 for "reculée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "reculée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "reculer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #186,747 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "reculée" and "reculer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "reculée vs refoulée". 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 #186,747 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