refairevsrefasseConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#3,357
“refaire” frequency rank
#36,562
“refasse” frequency rank
39919
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature refaire refasse
Definition Faire de nouveau ce qu’on a déjà fait. Première personne du singulier du présent du subjonctif de refaire.

Where the eye mixes refaire and refasse

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

7 ch
refaire
7 ch
refasse

Look-alike desk: refaire vs refasse

A purely visual mix-up. refaire (\ʁə.fɛʁ\) and refasse (\ʁə.fas\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39919, 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\. refasse is at rank #36,562, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.fas\.

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 39919, this pair ranks #244,380 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of refaire vs refasse

Shared letters: aefr. Private to "refaire": i. Private to "refasse": s.

"refaire" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCV  ·  "refasse" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • refaireerfaire · reafire · refaier · refairre · refarie · reffaire · refiare · rfeaire
  • refasseerfasse · reafsse · refase · refases · reffasse · refsase · rfeasse · rrefasse

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "refaire" for "refasse" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ʁə.fɛʁ\ versus \ʁə.fas\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "refaire" or "refasse"?
"refaire" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,357 in our French list, against #36,562 for "refasse". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "refaire" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "refasse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #244,380 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "refaire" and "refasse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "refasse vs rehaussé". 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 #244,380 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