rétablievsrétablirTell them apart

Which to use

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

#19,980
“rétablie” frequency rank
#6,134
“rétablir” frequency rank
26114
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rétablie rétablir
Definition Participe passé féminin singulier de rétablir. Remettre une personne ou une chose en son état antérieur.

Where the eye mixes rétablie and rétablir

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. rétablie (CVCVCCVV) and rétablir (CVCVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

8 ch
rétablie
8 ch
rétablir

Why the eye confuses rétablie with rétablir

A purely visual mix-up. rétablie (\ʁe.ta.bli\) and rétablir (\ʁe.ta.bliʁ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - e in “rétablie” becomes r in “rétablir”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26114, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rétablie is recorded at frequency rank #19,980, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁe.ta.bli\. rétablir is at rank #6,134, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁe.ta.bliʁ\.

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 26114, this pair ranks #337,034 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of rétablie vs rétablir

Shared letters: abilrté. Private to "rétablie": e. Private to "rétablir": -.

"rétablie" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVV  ·  "rétablir" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "rétablie" and "rétablir" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ʁe.ta.bli\ versus \ʁe.ta.bliʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "rétablie" or "rétablir" show up more?
"rétablir" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,134 in our French list, against #19,980 for "rétablie". 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 "rétablie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rétablir" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #337,034 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rétablie" and "rétablir" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "retable vs rétablie". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #337,034 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