écrinvsécritsWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: écrin is a noun, écrits is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“écrin” is a noun and “écrits” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#28,024
“écrin” frequency rank
#3,653
“écrits” frequency rank
31677
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature écrin écrits
Definition Petit coffret ou étui où l’on met des bagues, des pierreries et des objets précieux. Masculin pluriel de écrit.

Where the eye mixes écrin and écrits

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
écrin
6 ch
écrits

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: écrin is \e.kʁɛ̃\ while écrits is \e.kʁi\. 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 31677, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

écrin is recorded at frequency rank #28,024, classified as anoun, pronounced \e.kʁɛ̃\. écrits is at rank #3,653, tagged as anadj, pronounced \e.kʁi\.

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 31677, this pair ranks #302,291 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of écrin vs écrits

Shared letters: ciré. Private to "écrin": n. Private to "écrits": st.

"écrin" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC  ·  "écrits" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "écrin" and "écrits" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "écrin" is a noun and "écrits" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "écrin" or "écrits"?
"écrits" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,653 in our French list, against #28,024 for "écrin". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list