récupèrentvsrécurrentTell them apart

Quick tell: récupèrent is a verb, récurrent is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#28,729
“récupèrent” frequency rank
#15,246
“récurrent” frequency rank
43975
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature récupèrent récurrent
Definition Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de récupérer. Qui revient, qui réapparaît, qui est répétitif ou répété.

Where the eye mixes récupèrent and récurrent

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. récupèrent runs 10 letters (CVCVCVCVCC) against récurrent's 9 (CVCVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

10 ch
récupèrent
9 ch
récurrent

Look-alike desk: récupèrent vs récurrent

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: récupèrent is \ʁe.ky.pɛʁ\ while récurrent is \ʁe.ky.ʁɑ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43975, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

récupèrent is recorded at frequency rank #28,729, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁe.ky.pɛʁ\. récurrent is at rank #15,246, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ʁe.ky.ʁɑ̃\.

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 43975, this pair ranks #213,973 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of récupèrent vs récurrent

Shared letters: cenrtué. Private to "récupèrent": pè. Private to "récurrent": -.

"récupèrent" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCVCVCC  ·  "récurrent" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCVCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "récupèrent" and "récurrent" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "récupèrent" is a verb and "récurrent" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "récupèrent" or "récurrent"?
"récurrent" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,246 in our French list, against #28,729 for "récupèrent". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "récupèrent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "récurrent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #213,973 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "récupèrent" and "récurrent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "récupèrent vs repèrent". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #213,973 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