repèrentvsrépétantWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#45,837
“repèrent” frequency rank
#23,684
“répétant” frequency rank
69521
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature repèrent répétant
Definition Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de repérer. Participe présent de répéter.

Where the eye mixes repèrent and répétant

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. repèrent and répétant follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
repèrent
8 ch
répétant

Visual trap between repèrent and répétant

A purely visual mix-up. repèrent (\ʁə.pɛʁ\) and répétant (\ʁe.pe.tɑ̃\) 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 4 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 69521, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

repèrent is recorded at frequency rank #45,837, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.pɛʁ\. répétant is at rank #23,684, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁe.pe.tɑ̃\.

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 69521, this pair ranks #54,801 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of repèrent vs répétant

Shared letters: nprt. Private to "repèrent": eè. Private to "répétant": aé.

"repèrent" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCC  ·  "répétant" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "repèrent" for "répétant" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ʁə.pɛʁ\ versus \ʁe.pe.tɑ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "repèrent" vs "répétant" - which ranks higher?
"répétant" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,684 in our French list, against #45,837 for "repèrent". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "repèrent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "répétant" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #54,801 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "repèrent" and "répétant" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "recèlent vs repèrent". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #54,801 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