Which to use
“encombre” is a noun and “encore” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #24,957
- “encombre” frequency rank
- #85
- “encore” frequency rank
- 25042
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | encombre | encore |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Obstacle, difficulté matérielle ou d’autre nature. | Qui sert à marquer que l’action ou l’état dont il s’agit se continue, se continuera ou s’est continué jusqu’au temps indiqué par le verbe ou par les autres circonstances du discours. Pour la négation, voir pas encore. |
Where the eye mixes encombre and encore
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. encombre runs 8 letters (VCCVCCCV) against encore's 6 (VCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between encombre and encore
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: encombre is \ɑ̃.kɔ̃bʁ\ while encore is \ɑ̃.kɔʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25042, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
encombre is recorded at frequency rank #24,957, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɑ̃.kɔ̃bʁ\. encore is at rank #85, tagged as anadv, pronounced \ɑ̃.kɔʁ\.
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 25042, this pair ranks #343,128 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of encombre vs encore
Shared letters: cenor. Private to "encombre": bm. Private to "encore": -.
"encombre" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCCV · "encore" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "encombre" and "encore" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "encombre" vs "encore" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "encombre" and "encore" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "encombre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "encore" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #343,128 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "encombre" and "encore" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "encolure vs encombre". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #343,128 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.