reculéesvsreculésWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#37,515
“reculées” frequency rank
#33,432
“reculés” frequency rank
70947
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature reculées reculés
Definition Pluriel de reculée. Masculin pluriel de reculé.

Same sound, different letters: reculées vs reculés

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

8 ch
reculées
7 ch
reculés

Homophone desk: reculées vs reculés

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: reculées 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70947, 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\. 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 70947, this pair ranks #49,382 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of reculées vs reculés

Shared letters: celrsué. Private to "reculées": -. Private to "reculés": -.

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

Frequently Asked Questions

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

After this comparison

You've separated the homophone pair "reculées" / "reculés". 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 "reculés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #49,382 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "reculées" and "reculés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "reculées vs régulée". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #49,382 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