refuséesvsrefusezWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#35,240
“refusées” frequency rank
#28,714
“refusez” frequency rank
63954
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature refusées refusez
Definition Féminin pluriel de refusé. Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de refuser.

Same sound, different letters: refusées vs refusez

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters.

8 ch
refusées
7 ch
refusez

Homophone desk: refusées vs refusez

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: refusées and refusez 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 63954, 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\. refusez is at rank #28,714, 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 63954, this pair ranks #79,372 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of refusées vs refusez

Shared letters: efrsu. Private to "refusées": é. Private to "refusez": z.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • refusezerfusez · reffusez · refsuez · refuesz · refusezz · refussez · refusze · reufsez

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "refusées" for "refusez" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "refusées" is an adjective and "refusez" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "refusées" or "refusez" show up more?
"refusez" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,714 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.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "refusées" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "refusez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #79,372 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "refusées" and "refusez" 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 #79,372 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