Which to use
“retombée” is a noun and “retomber” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #30,343
- “retombée” frequency rank
- #12,854
- “retomber” frequency rank
- 43197
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | retombée | retomber |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Portion d’une voûte ou d’une arcade qui porte sur un mur ou sur un piédroit et qu’on peut poser sans cintre. | Tomber encore. |
Same sound, different letters: retombée vs retomber
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. retombée (CVCVCCVV) and retomber (CVCVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Ear matches; page differs - retombée and retomber
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: retombée and retomber carry the same recorded pronunciation, \ʁə.tɔ̃.be\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43197, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
retombée is recorded at frequency rank #30,343, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁə.tɔ̃.be\. retomber is at rank #12,854, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.tɔ̃.be\.
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 43197, this pair ranks #219,914 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of retombée vs retomber
Shared letters: bemort. Private to "retombée": é. Private to "retomber": -.
"retombée" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVV · "retomber" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- retomber ← ertomber · reotmber · retmober · retobmer · retombber · retomberr · retombre · retomebr
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "retombée" and "retomber" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "retombée" or "retomber" show up more?
What to do next
You've separated the homophone pair "retombée" / "retomber". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "retombée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "retomber" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #219,914 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "retombée" and "retomber" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "retombée vs retombent". 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 #219,914 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.