récupéréevsrécupérerTell them apart

Which to use

“récupérée” and “récupérer” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#24,377
“récupérée” frequency rank
#2,335
“récupérer” frequency rank
26712
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature récupérée récupérer
Definition Participe passé féminin singulier de récupérer. Recouvrer.

Same sound, different letters: récupérée vs récupérer

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. récupérée (CVCVCVCVV) and récupérer (CVCVCVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

9 ch
récupérée
9 ch
récupérer

Homophone desk: récupérée vs récupérer

This is the hard kind. récupérée and récupérer are pronounced identically (\ʁe.ky.pe.ʁe\) and both work as averb. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26712, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

récupérée is recorded at frequency rank #24,377, classified as averb, 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 26712, this pair ranks #333,287 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of récupérée vs récupérer

Shared letters: ceprué. Private to "récupérée": -. Private to "récupérer": -.

"récupérée" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVCVV  ·  "récupérer" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "récupérée" and "récupérer" be used interchangeably?
No. They are pronounced the same (\ʁe.ky.pe.ʁe\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
In ordinary French text, does "récupérée" or "récupérer" show up more?
"récupérer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,335 in our French list, against #24,377 for "récupérée". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "récupérée" 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 #333,287 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "récupérée" and "récupérer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "récupérée vs récupérez". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #333,287 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