récupérévsrécupéréeTell them apart

Quick tell: récupéré is a adjective, récupérée is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“récupéré” is an adjective and “récupérée” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#6,025
“récupéré” frequency rank
#24,377
“récupérée” frequency rank
30402
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature récupéré récupérée
Definition Qui est issu de la récupération. Participe passé féminin singulier de récupérer.

Same sound, different letters: récupéré vs récupérée

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. récupéré runs 8 letters (CVCVCVCV) against récupérée's 9 (CVCVCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
récupéré
9 ch
récupérée

Ear matches; page differs - récupéré and récupérée

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: récupéré and récupérée carry the same recorded pronunciation, \ʁe.ky.pe.ʁe\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “récupéré” sits inside “récupérée”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30402, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

récupéré is recorded at frequency rank #6,025, classified as anadj, pronounced \ʁe.ky.pe.ʁe\. récupérée is at rank #24,377, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁe.ky.pe.ʁe\.

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 30402, this pair ranks #310,563 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of récupéré vs récupérée

Shared letters: cprué. Private to "récupéré": -. Private to "récupérée": e.

"récupéré" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV  ·  "récupérée" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "récupéré" for "récupérée" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "récupéré" is an adjective and "récupérée" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "récupéré" or "récupérée"?
"récupéré" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,025 in our French list, against #24,377 for "récupérée". 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 "récupéré" / "récupérée". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "récupéré" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "récupérée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #310,563 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "récupéré" and "récupérée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "récupérée vs récupérez". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #310,563 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