refermévsréformésConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#32,150
“refermé” frequency rank
#34,297
“réformés” frequency rank
66447
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature refermé réformés
Definition Participe passé masculin singulier de refermer. Masculin pluriel de réformé.

Where the eye mixes refermé and réformés

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. refermé runs 7 letters (CVCVCCV) against réformés's 8 (CVCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
refermé
8 ch
réformés

Visual trap between refermé and réformés

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: refermé is \ʁə.fɛʁ.me\ while réformés is \ʁe.fɔʁ.me\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66447, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

refermé is recorded at frequency rank #32,150, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.fɛʁ.me\. réformés is at rank #34,297, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ʁe.fɔʁ.me\.

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 66447, this pair ranks #67,789 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of refermé vs réformés

Shared letters: fmré. Private to "refermé": e. Private to "réformés": os.

"refermé" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV  ·  "réformés" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "refermé" for "réformés" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "refermé" is a verb and "réformés" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "refermé" or "réformés" show up more?
"refermé" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,150 in our French list, against #34,297 for "réformés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "refermé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "réformés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #67,789 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "refermé" and "réformés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "réformées vs réformés". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #67,789 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