rétablirvsrétablisConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#6,134
“rétablir” frequency rank
#38,526
“rétablis” frequency rank
44660
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rétablir rétablis
Definition Remettre une personne ou une chose en son état antérieur. Pluriel de rétabli.

Where the eye mixes rétablir and rétablis

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. rétablir and rétablis follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
rétablir
8 ch
rétablis

Visual trap between rétablir and rétablis

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: rétablir is \ʁe.ta.bliʁ\ while rétablis is \ʁe.ta.bli\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - r in “rétablir” becomes s in “rétablis”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44660, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rétablir is recorded at frequency rank #6,134, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁe.ta.bliʁ\. rétablis is at rank #38,526, tagged as anoun, 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 44660, this pair ranks #208,773 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of rétablir vs rétablis

Shared letters: abilrté. Private to "rétablir": -. Private to "rétablis": s.

"rétablir" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC  ·  "rétablis" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "rétablir" for "rétablis" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "rétablir" is a verb and "rétablis" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "rétablir" or "rétablis" show up more?
"rétablir" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,134 in our French list, against #38,526 for "rétablis". 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 "rétablir" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rétablis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #208,773 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rétablir" and "rétablis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "retable vs rétablis". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #208,773 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