Which to use
“découpage” is a noun and “découragé” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #14,911
- “découpage” frequency rank
- #26,335
- “découragé” frequency rank
- 41246
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | découpage | découragé |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Action de découper, de faire des morceaux avec un objet coupant. | Abattu, sans courage. |
Where the eye mixes découpage and découragé
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. découpage and découragé follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses découpage with découragé
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: découpage is \de.ku.paʒ\ while découragé is \de.ku.ʁa.ʒe\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41246, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
découpage is recorded at frequency rank #14,911, classified as anoun, pronounced \de.ku.paʒ\. 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 41246, this pair ranks #234,499 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of découpage vs découragé
Shared letters: acdgoué. Private to "découpage": ep. Private to "découragé": r.
"découpage" · 9 letters · shape CVCVVCVCV · "découragé" · 9 letters · shape CVCVVCVCV
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "découpage" for "découragé" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "découpage" or "découragé" 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 "découpage" 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 #234,499 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "découpage" and "découragé" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "décodage vs découragé". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #234,499 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.