reculéesvsreculerWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#37,515
“reculées” frequency rank
#8,452
“reculer” frequency rank
45967
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature reculées reculer
Definition Pluriel de reculée. Tirer ou pousser un objet en arrière.

Same sound, different letters: reculées vs reculer

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. reculées runs 8 letters (CVCVCVVC) against reculer's 7 (CVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
reculées
7 ch
reculer

Same sound, different spelling - reculées / reculer

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: reculées 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 differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45967, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

reculées is recorded at frequency rank #37,515, 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 45967, this pair ranks #198,668 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of reculées vs reculer

Shared letters: celru. Private to "reculées": sé. Private to "reculer": -.

"reculées" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVVC  ·  "reculer" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "reculées" and "reculer" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "reculées" is a noun and "reculer" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "reculées" or "reculer"?
"reculer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,452 in our French list, against #37,515 for "reculées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've separated the homophone pair "reculées" / "reculer". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "reculées" 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 #198,668 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "reculées" and "reculer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "reculées vs régulée". 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 #198,668 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