refusèrentvsrefuserontWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#42,572
“refusèrent” frequency rank
#46,404
“refuseront” frequency rank
88976
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature refusèrent refuseront
Definition Troisième personne du pluriel du passé simple de refuser. Troisième personne du pluriel du futur de refuser.

Where the eye mixes refusèrent and refuseront

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence.

10 ch
refusèrent
10 ch
refuseront

Look-alike desk: refusèrent vs refuseront

A purely visual mix-up. refusèrent (\ʁə.fy.zɛʁ\) and refuseront (\ʁə.fy.zə.ʁɔ̃\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 88976, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

refusèrent is recorded at frequency rank #42,572, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.fy.zɛʁ\. refuseront is at rank #46,404, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.fy.zə.ʁɔ̃\.

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 88976, this pair ranks #6,326 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of refusèrent vs refuseront

Shared letters: efnrstu. Private to "refusèrent": è. Private to "refuseront": o.

"refusèrent" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCVCVCC  ·  "refuseront" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • refuseronterfuseront · reffuseront · refsueront · refuesront · refuseornt · refusernot · refuseronnt · refuserontt

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "refusèrent" and "refuseront" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ʁə.fy.zɛʁ\ versus \ʁə.fy.zə.ʁɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "refusèrent" vs "refuseront" - which ranks higher?
"refusèrent" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #42,572 in our French list, against #46,404 for "refuseront". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "refusèrent" and "refuseront" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "refusèrent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "refuseront" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #6,326 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "refusèrent" and "refuseront" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "refuseraient vs refusèrent". 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 #6,326 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