refairevsrefaitsConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#3,357
“refaire” frequency rank
#47,563
“refaits” frequency rank
50920
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature refaire refaits
Definition Faire de nouveau ce qu’on a déjà fait. Masculin pluriel de refait.

Where the eye mixes refaire and refaits

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
refaire
7 ch
refaits

Visual trap between refaire and refaits

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: refaire is \ʁə.fɛʁ\ while refaits is \ʁə.fɛ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50920, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

refaire is recorded at frequency rank #3,357, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.fɛʁ\. refaits is at rank #47,563, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ʁə.fɛ\.

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 50920, this pair ranks #158,915 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of refaire vs refaits

Shared letters: aefir. Private to "refaire": -. Private to "refaits": st.

"refaire" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCV  ·  "refaits" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • refaireerfaire · reafire · refaier · refairre · refarie · reffaire · refiare · rfeaire
  • refaitserfaits · reafits · refaist · refaitss · refaitts · refatis · reffaits · refiats

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "refaire" and "refaits" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "refaire" is a verb and "refaits" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "refaire" or "refaits"?
"refaire" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,357 in our French list, against #47,563 for "refaits". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "refaire" and "refaits" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "refaire" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "refaits" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #158,915 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "refaire" and "refaits" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "refaits vs refrains". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #158,915 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