Which to use
“refusa” is a verb and “refusés” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #18,038
- “refusa” frequency rank
- #27,595
- “refusés” frequency rank
- 45633
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | refusa | refusés |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de refuser. | Masculin pluriel de refusé. |
Where the eye mixes refusa and refusés
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between refusa and refusés
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: refusa is \ʁə.fy.za\ while refusés is \ʁə.fy.ze\. 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 45633, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
refusa is recorded at frequency rank #18,038, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.fy.za\. refusés is at rank #27,595, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ʁə.fy.ze\.
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 45633, this pair ranks #201,249 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of refusa vs refusés
Shared letters: efrsu. Private to "refusa": a. Private to "refusés": é.
"refusa" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "refusés" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- refusa ← erfusa · reffusa · refsua · refuas · refussa · reufsa · rfeusa · rrefusa
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "refusa" and "refusés" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "refusa" or "refusés" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "refusa" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "refusés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #201,249 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "refusa" and "refusés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "refusés vs révisés". 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 #201,249 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.