Which to use
“refouler” is a verb and “refoulés” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #32,152
- “refouler” frequency rank
- #36,125
- “refoulés” frequency rank
- 68277
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | refouler | refoulés |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Fouler (presser) de nouveau. | Masculin pluriel de refoulé. |
Same sound, different letters: refouler vs refoulés
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. refouler and refoulés follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Same sound, different spelling - refouler / refoulés
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: refouler and refoulés carry the same recorded pronunciation, \ʁə.fu.le\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is averb, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68277, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
refouler is recorded at frequency rank #32,152, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.fu.le\. refoulés is at rank #36,125, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ʁə.fu.le\.
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 68277, this pair ranks #59,803 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of refouler vs refoulés
Shared letters: efloru. Private to "refouler": -. Private to "refoulés": sé.
"refouler" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCVC · "refoulés" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- refouler ← erfouler · reffouler · refoluer · refouelr · refoulerr · refouller · refoulre · refuoler
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "refouler" for "refoulés" ever safe?
Which is more common, "refouler" or "refoulés"?
After this comparison
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "refouler" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "refoulés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #59,803 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "refouler" and "refoulés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "refoulée vs refoulés". 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 #59,803 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.