écrirevsécrisTell them apart

Which to use

“écrire” and “écris” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#1,154
“écrire” frequency rank
#3,886
“écris” frequency rank
5040
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature écrire écris
Definition Créer une représentation de mots à l’aide de lettres et de symboles, par le biais d’un média. Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de écrire.

Where the eye mixes écrire and écris

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

6 ch
écrire
5 ch
écris

Why the eye confuses écrire with écris

A purely visual mix-up. écrire (\e.kʁiʁ\) and écris (\e.kʁi\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5040, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

écrire is recorded at frequency rank #1,154, classified as averb, pronounced \e.kʁiʁ\. écris is at rank #3,886, tagged as averb, 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 5040, this pair ranks #430,062 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of écrire vs écris

Shared letters: ciré. Private to "écrire": e. Private to "écris": s.

"écrire" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV  ·  "écris" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "écrire" and "écris" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\e.kʁiʁ\ versus \e.kʁi\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "écrire" or "écris"?
"écrire" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,154 in our French list, against #3,886 for "écris". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "écrire" and "écris" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "écrire" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "écris" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #430,062 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "écrire" and "écris" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "écris vs éprise". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #430,062 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list