Which to use
“encourage” and “encourue” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #7,313
- “encourage” frequency rank
- #43,410
- “encourue” frequency rank
- 50723
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | encourage | encourue |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de encourager. | Participe passé féminin singulier de encourir. |
Where the eye mixes encourage and encourue
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. encourage runs 9 letters (VCCVVCVCV) against encourue's 8 (VCCVVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses encourage with encourue
A purely visual mix-up. encourage (\ɑ̃.ku.ʁaʒ\) and encourue (\ɑ̃.ku.ʁy\) 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 50723, 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\. encourue is at rank #43,410, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.ku.ʁy\.
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 50723, this pair ranks #160,461 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of encourage vs encourue
Shared letters: cenoru. Private to "encourage": ag. Private to "encourue": -.
"encourage" · 9 letters · shape VCCVVCVCV · "encourue" · 8 letters · shape VCCVVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "encourage" and "encourue" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "encourage" vs "encourue" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
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 "encourue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #160,461 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "encourage" and "encourue" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "encourir vs encourue". 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 #160,461 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.