respectervsrespectsWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#2,246
“respecter” frequency rank
#30,777
“respects” frequency rank
33023
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature respecter respects
Definition Honorer ; révérer ; porter respect (à). Pluriel de respect.

Where the eye mixes respecter and respects

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. respecter runs 9 letters (CVCCVCCVC) against respects's 8 (CVCCVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
respecter
8 ch
respects

Look-alike desk: respecter vs respects

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: respecter is \ʁɛs.pɛk.te\ while respects is \ʁɛs.pɛ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 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 33023, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

respecter is recorded at frequency rank #2,246, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁɛs.pɛk.te\. respects is at rank #30,777, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁɛs.pɛ\.

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 33023, this pair ranks #293,373 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of respecter vs respects

Shared letters: ceprst. Private to "respecter": -. Private to "respects": -.

"respecter" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC  ·  "respects" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • respectererspecter · repsecter · resepcter · respceter · respeccter · respecetr · respecterr · respectre
  • respectserspects · repsects · resepcts · respcets · respeccts · respecst · respectss · respectts

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "respecter" and "respects" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "respecter" is a verb and "respects" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "respecter" or "respects" show up more?
"respecter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,246 in our French list, against #30,777 for "respects". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "respecter" and "respects" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "respecter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "respects" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #293,373 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "respecter" and "respects" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "respectons vs respects". 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 #293,373 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