What does recoup mean?
Word: Recoup
Part of Speech: Verb
Meaning: Recoup means to get back money that you have spent or lost.
Synonyms: regain
How do you spell recoup?
Syllables: re - coup
Tricky part: The end sounds like oop but is spelt oup. Pupils who trust their ears write recoop.
Watch out for: recoop, recup
Memory tip: Rhyme it with soup: picture a cook selling bowls of soup to get back the cost of the pot.
Recoup in a sentence
Example 1: The farmer hopes to recoup his costs when the mangoes reach the market.
Example 2: It took our cricket club two seasons to recoup the price of the new nets.
Example 3: The small publisher took a year to recoup the printing bill.
Fun Fact
Recoup comes from a French verb meaning to cut back. The noun coupon comes from the same French source, since a coupon was a piece cut off.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Cookie
Find the misspelt word in the sentence:
When the rain ruined the first day of the fair, the stallholders worried that they would never reccoup the money they had paid for their tents and tables.
a) worried
b) ruined
c) reccoup
d) stallholders
Show answer
c) reccoup. Only one consonant stands between the opening re and the rest of the word.
Mingle-Mangle
Unjumble the letters to find the word that fits the sentence:
The book stall hopes to oucrpe its costs by the end of the fair.
a) regroup
b) recount
c) recoil
d) recoup
Show answer
d) recoup. Six letters with a p and no g, n or l point to one word.
Word Connection
Choose the synonym of the word recoup as used in the sentence:
The bakery raised its prices a little to recoup the money spent on a new oven.
a) borrow
b) invest
c) waste
d) recover
Show answer
d) recover. The bakery wants that money back, and that is what recover means here.
Spell-o-Spell
Only one word in the list is spelt correctly. Choose its meaning:
1. salvege 2. recoup 3. reimberse 4. compansate
a) to make up for an earlier cost
b) to pay a person back for money they spent
c) to give something to make up for a loss or trouble
d) to save something from being thrown away
Show answer
a) to make up for an earlier cost. Reimburse has ur in the middle, compensate has en, and salvage ends in age.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. A shopkeeper has recouped her losses. What has most likely happened?
a) She has lost even more than before.
b) She has closed the shop for good.
c) She has earned back what had gone.
d) She has moved to a bigger market.
Show answer
c) She has earned back what had gone.
2. Where does the stress fall in recoup?
a) on neither syllable
b) on the first syllable
c) equally on both
d) on the second syllable
Show answer
d) on the second syllable
