Which to use
“reculer” and “régulée” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #8,452
- “reculer” frequency rank
- #44,162
- “régulée” frequency rank
- 52614
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | reculer | régulée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Tirer ou pousser un objet en arrière. | Participe passé féminin singulier de réguler. |
Where the eye mixes reculer and régulée
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. reculer (CVCVCVC) and régulée (CVCVCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses reculer with régulée
A purely visual mix-up. reculer (\ʁə.ky.le\) and régulée (\ʁe.ɡy.le\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 4 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52614, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
reculer is recorded at frequency rank #8,452, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.ky.le\. régulée is at rank #44,162, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁe.ɡy.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 52614, this pair ranks #146,473 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of reculer vs régulée
Shared letters: elru. Private to "reculer": c. Private to "régulée": gé.
"reculer" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC · "régulée" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- reculer ← erculer · rceuler · recculer · recluer · recuelr · reculerr · reculler · reculre
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "reculer" and "régulée" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "reculer" or "régulée"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "reculer" and "régulée" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "reculer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "régulée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #146,473 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "reculer" and "régulée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "refoulée 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 #146,473 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.