rétablivsrétablitWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#13,470
“rétabli” frequency rank
#23,359
“rétablit” frequency rank
36829
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rétabli rétablit
Definition Personne qui s’est rétabli de sa maladie. Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de rétablir.

Same sound, different letters: rétabli vs rétablit

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. rétabli runs 7 letters (CVCVCCV) against rétablit's 8 (CVCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
rétabli
8 ch
rétablit

Same sound, different spelling - rétabli / rétablit

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: rétabli and rétablit carry the same recorded pronunciation, \ʁe.ta.bli\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “rétabli” sits inside “rétablit”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36829, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rétabli is recorded at frequency rank #13,470, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁe.ta.bli\. rétablit is at rank #23,359, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁe.ta.bli\.

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 36829, this pair ranks #266,858 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of rétabli vs rétablit

Shared letters: abilrté. Private to "rétabli": -. Private to "rétablit": -.

"rétabli" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV  ·  "rétablit" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "rétabli" for "rétablit" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "rétabli" is a noun and "rétablit" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "rétabli" or "rétablit" show up more?
"rétabli" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,470 in our French list, against #23,359 for "rétablit". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've separated the homophone pair "rétabli" / "rétablit". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "rétabli" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rétablit" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #266,858 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rétabli" and "rétablit" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "retable vs rétablit". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #266,858 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