Which to use
“décodage” is a noun and “découragé” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #44,430
- “décodage” frequency rank
- #26,335
- “découragé” frequency rank
- 70765
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | décodage | découragé |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Action de décoder ou son résultat. | Abattu, sans courage. |
Where the eye mixes décodage and découragé
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. décodage runs 8 letters (CVCVCVCV) against découragé's 9 (CVCVVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses décodage with découragé
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: décodage is \de.kɔ.daʒ\ while découragé is \de.ku.ʁa.ʒe\. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70765, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
décodage is recorded at frequency rank #44,430, classified as anoun, pronounced \de.kɔ.daʒ\. découragé is at rank #26,335, tagged as anadj, pronounced \de.ku.ʁa.ʒe\.
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 70765, this pair ranks #50,108 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of décodage vs découragé
Shared letters: acdgoé. Private to "décodage": e. Private to "découragé": ru.
"décodage" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV · "découragé" · 9 letters · shape CVCVVCVCV
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "décodage" for "découragé" ever safe?
Frequency check: "décodage" vs "découragé" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "décodage" and "découragé" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "décodage" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "découragé" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #50,108 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "décodage" and "découragé" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "décodage vs découpage". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #50,108 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.