refaisvsrefaitWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#15,992
“refais” frequency rank
#6,880
“refait” frequency rank
22872
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature refais refait
Definition Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de refaire. Fait de nouveau.

Same sound, different letters: refais vs refait

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters.

6 ch
refais
6 ch
refait

Same sound, different spelling - refais / refait

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: refais and refait carry the same recorded pronunciation, \ʁə.fɛ\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is averb, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by a single letter - s in “refais” becomes t in “refait”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22872, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

refais is recorded at frequency rank #15,992, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.fɛ\. refait is at rank #6,880, 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 22872, this pair ranks #355,664 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of refais vs refait

Shared letters: aefir. Private to "refais": s. Private to "refait": t.

"refais" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "refait" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • refaiserfais · reafis · refaiss · refasi · reffais · refias · rfeais · rrefais
  • refaiterfait · reafit · refaitt · refati · reffait · refiat · rfeait · rrefait

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "refais" and "refait" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "refais" is a verb and "refait" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "refais" vs "refait" - which ranks higher?
"refait" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,880 in our French list, against #15,992 for "refais". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "refais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "refait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #355,664 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "refais" and "refait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "refais vs Reis". 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 #355,664 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