Which to use
“rétrécir” and “rétrécit” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #40,481
- “rétrécir” frequency rank
- #37,546
- “rétrécit” frequency rank
- 78027
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | rétrécir | rétrécit |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Rendre plus étroit, moins large. | Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de rétrécir. |
Where the eye mixes rétrécir and rétrécit
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. rétrécir and rétrécit follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between rétrécir and rétrécit
A purely visual mix-up. rétrécir (\ʁe.tʁe.siʁ\) and rétrécit (\ʁe.tʁe.si\) 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 - r in “rétrécir” becomes t in “rétrécit”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 78027, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
rétrécir is recorded at frequency rank #40,481, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁe.tʁe.siʁ\. rétrécit is at rank #37,546, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁe.tʁe.si\.
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 78027, this pair ranks #26,820 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of rétrécir vs rétrécit
Shared letters: cirté. Private to "rétrécir": -. Private to "rétrécit": -.
"rétrécir" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC · "rétrécit" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "rétrécir" and "rétrécit" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "rétrécir" or "rétrécit" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "rétrécir" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "rétrécit" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #26,820 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "rétrécir" and "rétrécit" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rétréci vs rétrécir". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #26,820 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.