récupérervsrécupérezWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#2,335
“récupérer” frequency rank
#42,592
“récupérez” frequency rank
44927
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature récupérer récupérez
Definition Recouvrer. Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de récupérer.

Same sound, different letters: récupérer vs récupérez

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. récupérer and récupérez 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
récupérez

Ear matches; page differs - récupérer and récupérez

This is the hard kind. récupérer and récupérez 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 differ by a single letter - r in “récupérer” becomes z in “récupérez”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44927, 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\. récupérez is at rank #42,592, 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 44927, this pair ranks #206,741 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of récupérer vs récupérez

Shared letters: ceprué. Private to "récupérer": -. Private to "récupérez": z.

"récupérer" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVCVC  ·  "récupérez" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "récupérer" for "récupérez" ever safe?
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 "récupérer" or "récupérez" show up more?
"récupérer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,335 in our French list, against #42,592 for "récupérez". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "récupérer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "récupérez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #206,741 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "récupérer" and "récupérez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "récupèrent vs récupérez". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #206,741 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