reculéevsreculésWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: reculée is a noun, reculés is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#39,008
“reculée” frequency rank
#33,432
“reculés” frequency rank
72440
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature reculée reculés
Definition Espace qui permet de se reculer. Masculin pluriel de reculé.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set reculée and reculés apart are highlighted. They share 6 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

7 ch
reculée
7 ch
reculés

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: reculée and reculés carry the same recorded pronunciation, \ʁə.ky.le\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by a single letter - e in “reculée” becomes s in “reculés”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72440, 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\. reculés is at rank #33,432, tagged as anadj, 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 72440, this pair ranks #43,990 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of reculée vs reculés

Shared letters: celrué. Private to "reculée": -. Private to "reculés": s.

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

Frequency comparison

reculée#39,008
reculés#33,432

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "reculée" and "reculés" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "reculée" is a noun and "reculés" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "reculée" or "reculés"?
"reculés" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33,432 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.

Remembering reculée vs reculés

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “reculée”; for an adjective, it's “reculés”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “reculée” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list