recyclévsrecyclésTell them apart

Which to use

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

#26,844
“recyclé” frequency rank
#34,279
“recyclés” frequency rank
61123
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature recyclé recyclés
Definition Participe passé masculin singulier de recycler. Participe passé masculin pluriel de recycler.

Same sound, different letters: recyclé vs recyclés

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

7 ch
recyclé
8 ch
recyclés

Same sound, different spelling - recyclé / recyclés

This is the hard kind. recyclé and recyclés are pronounced identically (\ʁə.si.kle\) 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 1 extra letter(s) - “recyclé” sits inside “recyclés”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61123, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

recyclé is recorded at frequency rank #26,844, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.si.kle\. recyclés is at rank #34,279, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.si.kle\.

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 61123, this pair ranks #93,943 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of recyclé vs recyclés

Shared letters: celryé. Private to "recyclé": -. Private to "recyclés": s.

"recyclé" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV  ·  "recyclés" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "recyclé" for "recyclés" ever safe?
No. They are pronounced the same (\ʁə.si.kle\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Which is more common, "recyclé" or "recyclés"?
"recyclé" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,844 in our French list, against #34,279 for "recyclés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "recyclé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "recyclés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #93,943 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "recyclé" and "recyclés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "recalé vs recyclé". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #93,943 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