récupérervsrécupérésWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#2,335
“récupérer” frequency rank
#21,458
“récupérés” frequency rank
23793
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature récupérer récupérés
Definition Recouvrer. Participe passé masculin pluriel de récupérer.

Same sound, different letters: récupérer vs récupérés

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. récupérer and récupérés follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

9 ch
récupérer
9 ch
récupérés

Ear matches; page differs - récupérer and récupérés

This is the hard kind. récupérer and récupérés 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 23793, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

récupérer is recorded at frequency rank #2,335, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁe.ky.pe.ʁe\. récupérés is at rank #21,458, 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 23793, this pair ranks #350,426 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of récupérer vs récupérés

Shared letters: cprué. Private to "récupérer": e. Private to "récupérés": s.

"récupérer" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVCVC  ·  "récupérés" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "récupérer" and "récupérés" 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.
Frequency check: "récupérer" vs "récupérés" - which ranks higher?
"récupérer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,335 in our French list, against #21,458 for "récupérés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "récupérer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "récupérés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #350,426 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "récupérer" and "récupérés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "récupérés vs récupérez". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #350,426 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