refuservsrefuseraWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“refuser” and “refusera” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#3,562
“refuser” frequency rank
#28,323
“refusera” frequency rank
31885
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature refuser refusera
Definition Rejeter une demande, ne pas accorder ce qui est demandé ; ne pas vouloir faire ce qui est exigé, prescrit, ordonné. Troisième personne du singulier du futur de refuser.

Where the eye mixes refuser and refusera

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.

7 ch
refuser
8 ch
refusera

Look-alike desk: refuser vs refusera

A purely visual mix-up. refuser (\ʁə.fy.ze\) and refusera (\ʁə.fy.zə.ʁa\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “refuser” sits inside “refusera”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31885, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

refuser is recorded at frequency rank #3,562, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.fy.ze\. refusera is at rank #28,323, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.fy.zə.ʁa\.

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 31885, this pair ranks #300,950 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of refuser vs refusera

Shared letters: efrsu. Private to "refuser": -. Private to "refusera": a.

"refuser" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "refusera" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • refusererfuser · reffuser · refsuer · refuesr · refuserr · refusre · refusser · reufser
  • refuseraerfusera · reffusera · refsuera · refuesra · refusear · refuserra · refusrea · refussera

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "refuser" and "refusera" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ʁə.fy.ze\ versus \ʁə.fy.zə.ʁa\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "refuser" or "refusera" show up more?
"refuser" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,562 in our French list, against #28,323 for "refusera". 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 "refuser" and "refusera" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "refuser" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "refusera" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #300,950 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "refuser" and "refusera" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "refusera vs reposera". 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 #300,950 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