Which to use
“encourage” and “encouragez” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #7,313
- “encourage” frequency rank
- #48,492
- “encouragez” frequency rank
- 55805
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | encourage | encouragez |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de encourager. | Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de encourager. |
Where the eye mixes encourage and encouragez
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. encourage runs 9 letters (VCCVVCVCV) against encouragez's 10 (VCCVVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: encourage vs encouragez
A purely visual mix-up. encourage (\ɑ̃.ku.ʁaʒ\) and encouragez (\ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒe\) 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 extra letter(s) - “encourage” sits inside “encouragez”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55805, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
encourage is recorded at frequency rank #7,313, classified as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.ku.ʁaʒ\. encouragez is at rank #48,492, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.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 55805, this pair ranks #125,122 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of encourage vs encouragez
Shared letters: acegnoru. Private to "encourage": -. Private to "encouragez": z.
"encourage" · 9 letters · shape VCCVVCVCV · "encouragez" · 10 letters · shape VCCVVCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- encourage ← ecnourage · enccourage · encoruage · encouarge · encouraeg · encouragge · encourgae · encourrage
- encouragez ← ecnouragez · enccouragez · encoruagez · encouargez · encouraegz · encouragezz · encouraggez · encouragze
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "encourage" for "encouragez" ever safe?
Which is more common, "encourage" or "encouragez"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "encourage" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "encouragez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #125,122 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "encourage" and "encouragez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "encouragées vs encouragez". 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 #125,122 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.