rentrée vs rentrés, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“rentrée” is a noun and “rentrés” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,643
“rentrée” frequency rank: #13,899
“rentrés” frequency rank: 16542
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	rentrée	rentrés
Definition	Action de rentrer.	Masculin pluriel de rentré.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set rentrée and rentrés apart are highlighted. They share 6 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

7 ch

rentrée

7 ch

rentrés

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: rentrée and rentrés carry the same recorded pronunciation, \ʁɑ̃.tʁe\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by a single letter - e in “rentrée” becomes s in “rentrés”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16542, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rentrée is recorded at frequency rank #2,643, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁɑ̃.tʁe\. rentrés is at rank #13,899, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ʁɑ̃.tʁe\.

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 16542, this pair ranks #387,362 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of rentrée vs rentrés

Shared letters: enrté. Private to "rentrée": -. Private to "rentrés": s.

"rentrée" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVV · "rentrés" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC

Frequency comparison

rentrée#2,643

rentrés#13,899

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "rentrée" and "rentrés" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "rentrée" is a noun and "rentrés" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "rentrée" or "rentrés"?

"rentrée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,643 in our French list, against #13,899 for "rentrés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering rentrée vs rentrés

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “rentrée”; for an adjective, it's “rentrés”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “rentrée” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable