refuséesvsrefuserConfusable pair

Quick tell: refusées is a adjective, refuser is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#35,240
“refusées” frequency rank
#3,562
“refuser” frequency rank
38802
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature refusées refuser
Definition Féminin pluriel de refusé. Rejeter une demande, ne pas accorder ce qui est demandé ; ne pas vouloir faire ce qui est exigé, prescrit, ordonné.

Same sound, different letters: refusées vs refuser

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. refusées runs 8 letters (CVCVCVVC) against refuser's 7 (CVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
refusées
7 ch
refuser

Ear matches; page differs - refusées and refuser

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: refusées and refuser carry the same recorded pronunciation, \ʁə.fy.ze\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38802, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

refusées is recorded at frequency rank #35,240, classified as anadj, pronounced \ʁə.fy.ze\. refuser is at rank #3,562, tagged as averb, 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 38802, this pair ranks #252,695 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of refusées vs refuser

Shared letters: efrsu. Private to "refusées": é. Private to "refuser": -.

"refusées" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVVC  ·  "refuser" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • refuser ← erfuser · reffuser · refsuer · refuesr · refuserr · refusre · refusser · reufser

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "refusées" and "refuser" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "refusées" is an adjective and "refuser" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "refusées" or "refuser"?
"refuser" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,562 in our French list, against #35,240 for "refusées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

"refusées" and "refuser" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "refusées" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "refuser" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #252,695 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "refusées" and "refuser" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "réfugiées vs refusées". 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 #252,695 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