respectevsrespectéesWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: respecte is a verb, respectées is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“respecte” is a verb and “respectées” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,711
“respecte” frequency rank
#18,308
“respectées” frequency rank
22019
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature respecte respectées
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de respecter. Féminin pluriel de respecté.

Where the eye mixes respecte and respectées

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. respecte runs 8 letters (CVCCVCCV) against respectées's 10 (CVCCVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
respecte
10 ch
respectées

Look-alike desk: respecte vs respectées

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: respecte is \ʁɛs.pɛkt\ while respectées is \ʁɛs.pɛk.te\. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22019, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

respecte is recorded at frequency rank #3,711, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁɛs.pɛkt\. respectées is at rank #18,308, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ʁɛs.pɛk.te\.

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 22019, this pair ranks #360,214 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of respecte vs respectées

Shared letters: ceprst. Private to "respecte": -. Private to "respectées": é.

"respecte" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV  ·  "respectées" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • respecteerspecte · repsecte · resepcte · respcete · respeccte · respecet · respectte · respetce

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "respecte" and "respectées" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "respecte" is a verb and "respectées" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "respecte" or "respectées" show up more?
"respecte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,711 in our French list, against #18,308 for "respectées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "respecte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "respectées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #360,214 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "respecte" and "respectées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "respectées vs respectera". 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 #360,214 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