encercléevsencerclésTell them apart

Which to use

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

#43,917
“encerclée” frequency rank
#42,316
“encerclés” frequency rank
86233
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature encerclée encerclés
Definition Participe passé féminin singulier de encercler. Participe passé masculin pluriel de encercler.

Same sound, different letters: encerclée vs encerclés

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. encerclée (VCCVCCCVV) and encerclés (VCCVCCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

9 ch
encerclée
9 ch
encerclés

Homophone desk: encerclée vs encerclés

This is the hard kind. encerclée and encerclés are pronounced identically (\ɑ̃.sɛʁ.kle\) and both work as averb. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by a single letter - e in “encerclée” becomes s in “encerclés”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 86233, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

encerclée is recorded at frequency rank #43,917, classified as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.sɛʁ.kle\. encerclés is at rank #42,316, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.sɛʁ.kle\.

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 86233, this pair ranks #10,031 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of encerclée vs encerclés

Shared letters: celnré. Private to "encerclée": -. Private to "encerclés": s.

"encerclée" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCCVV  ·  "encerclés" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "encerclée" and "encerclés" be used interchangeably?
No. They are pronounced the same (\ɑ̃.sɛʁ.kle\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "encerclée" vs "encerclés" - which ranks higher?
"encerclés" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #42,316 in our French list, against #43,917 for "encerclée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've separated the homophone pair "encerclée" / "encerclés". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "encerclée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "encerclés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #10,031 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "encerclée" and "encerclés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "encerclée vs encercler". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #10,031 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