répondvsrêvonsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#1,755
“répond” frequency rank
#44,715
“rêvons” frequency rank
46470
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature répond rêvons
Definition Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de répondre. Première personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de rêver.

Where the eye mixes répond and rêvons

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. répond and rêvons follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
répond
6 ch
rêvons

Visual trap between répond and rêvons

A purely visual mix-up. répond (\ʁe.pɔ̃\) and rêvons (\ʁɛ.vɔ̃\) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46470, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

répond is recorded at frequency rank #1,755, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁe.pɔ̃\. rêvons is at rank #44,715, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁɛ.vɔ̃\.

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 46470, this pair ranks #194,673 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of répond vs rêvons

Shared letters: nor. Private to "répond": dpé. Private to "rêvons": svê.

"répond" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC  ·  "rêvons" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "répond" for "rêvons" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ʁe.pɔ̃\ versus \ʁɛ.vɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "répond" vs "rêvons" - which ranks higher?
"répond" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,755 in our French list, against #44,715 for "rêvons". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "répond" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rêvons" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #194,673 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "répond" and "rêvons" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "révolus vs rêvons". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #194,673 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