renaîtvsrenaîtreConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#28,327
“renaît” frequency rank
#19,133
“renaître” frequency rank
47460
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature renaît renaître
Definition Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de renaître. Naître de nouveau.

Where the eye mixes renaît and renaître

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. renaît runs 6 letters (CVCVVC) against renaître's 8 (CVCVVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
renaît
8 ch
renaître

Look-alike desk: renaît vs renaître

A purely visual mix-up. renaît (\ʁə.nɛ\) and renaître (\ʁə.nɛtʁ\) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “renaît” sits inside “renaître”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47460, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

renaît is recorded at frequency rank #28,327, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.nɛ\. renaître is at rank #19,133, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.nɛtʁ\.

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 47460, this pair ranks #186,747 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of renaît vs renaître

Shared letters: aenrtî. Private to "renaît": -. Private to "renaître": -.

"renaît" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "renaître" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "renaît" for "renaître" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ʁə.nɛ\ versus \ʁə.nɛtʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "renaît" or "renaître"?
"renaître" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,133 in our French list, against #28,327 for "renaît". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "renaît" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "renaître" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #186,747 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "renaît" and "renaître" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "relit vs renaît". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #186,747 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