répondsvsreposWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: réponds is a verb, repos is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“réponds” is a verb and “repos” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,797
“réponds” frequency rank
#2,894
“repos” frequency rank
6691
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature réponds repos
Definition Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de répondre. Privation, cessation de mouvement, d’activité ou d’effort.

Where the eye mixes réponds and repos

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. réponds runs 7 letters (CVCVCCC) against repos's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
réponds
5 ch
repos

Visual trap between réponds and repos

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: réponds is \ʁe.pɔ̃\ while repos is \ʁə.po\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6691, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

réponds is recorded at frequency rank #3,797, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁe.pɔ̃\. repos is at rank #2,894, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁə.po\.

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 6691, this pair ranks #425,521 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of réponds vs repos

Shared letters: oprs. Private to "réponds": dné. Private to "repos": e.

"réponds" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCC  ·  "repos" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • repos ← erpos · reops · reposs · reppos · repso · rpeos · rrepos

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "réponds" for "repos" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "réponds" is a verb and "repos" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "réponds" or "repos" show up more?
"repos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,894 in our French list, against #3,797 for "réponds". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "réponds" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "repos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #425,521 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "réponds" and "repos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Reis vs repos". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #425,521 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