Which to use
“retouche” is a noun and “retouchée” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #28,331
- “retouche” frequency rank
- #48,160
- “retouchée” frequency rank
- 76491
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | retouche | retouchée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Action de retoucher ou résultat de cette action. | Participe passé féminin singulier de retoucher. |
Where the eye mixes retouche and retouchée
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. retouche runs 8 letters (CVCVVCCV) against retouchée's 9 (CVCVVCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between retouche and retouchée
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: retouche is \ʁə.tuʃ\ while retouchée is \ʁə.tu.ʃe\. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 76491, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
retouche is recorded at frequency rank #28,331, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁə.tuʃ\. retouchée is at rank #48,160, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.tu.ʃe\.
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 76491, this pair ranks #31,000 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of retouche vs retouchée
Shared letters: cehortu. Private to "retouche": -. Private to "retouchée": é.
"retouche" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCCV · "retouchée" · 9 letters · shape CVCVVCCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- retouche ← ertouche · reotuche · retocuhe · retoucche · retouceh · retouchhe · retouhce · rettouche
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "retouche" and "retouchée" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "retouche" or "retouchée" show up more?
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 "retouche" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "retouchée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #31,000 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "retouche" and "retouchée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "recoucher vs retouchée". 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 #31,000 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.