récupérévsrécupérerWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#6,025
“récupéré” frequency rank
#2,335
“récupérer” frequency rank
8360
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature récupéré récupérer
Definition Qui est issu de la récupération. Recouvrer.

Same sound, different letters: récupéré vs récupérer

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. récupéré runs 8 letters (CVCVCVCV) against récupérer's 9 (CVCVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
récupéré
9 ch
récupérer

Homophone desk: récupéré vs récupérer

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: récupéré and récupérer 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8360, 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\. récupérer is at rank #2,335, 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 8360, this pair ranks #420,300 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of récupéré vs récupérer

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

"récupéré" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV  ·  "récupérer" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "récupéré" and "récupérer" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "récupéré" is an adjective and "récupérer" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "récupéré" or "récupérer"?
"récupérer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,335 in our French list, against #6,025 for "récupéré". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

"récupéré" and "récupérer" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "récupéré" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "récupérer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #420,300 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "récupéré" and "récupérer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "recouper vs récupéré". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #420,300 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