Which to use
“repassé” is a verb and “réponse” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #27,940
- “repassé” frequency rank
- #698
- “réponse” frequency rank
- 28638
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | repassé | réponse |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Participe passé masculin singulier de repasser. | Parole dite, ou acte effectué, en réaction à une question posée, une demande, ou à une déclaration, ou encore à un évènement. |
Where the eye mixes repassé and réponse
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. repassé and réponse follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between repassé and réponse
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: repassé is \ʁə.pa.se\ while réponse is \ʁe.pɔ̃s\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 4 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28638, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
repassé is recorded at frequency rank #27,940, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.pa.se\. réponse is at rank #698, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁe.pɔ̃s\.
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 28638, this pair ranks #321,580 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of repassé vs réponse
Shared letters: eprsé. Private to "repassé": a. Private to "réponse": no.
"repassé" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV · "réponse" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "repassé" and "réponse" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "repassé" or "réponse" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "repassé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "réponse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #321,580 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "repassé" and "réponse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "reparlé vs repassé". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #321,580 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.