Which to use
“encourageait” is a verb and “encourageante” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #41,268
- “encourageait” frequency rank
- #49,630
- “encourageante” frequency rank
- 90898
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | encourageait | encourageante |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de encourager. | Féminin singulier de encourageant. |
Where the eye mixes encourageait and encourageante
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 11 letters in sequence. encourageait runs 12 letters (VCCVVCVCVVVC) against encourageante's 13 (VCCVVCVCVVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: encourageait vs encourageante
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: encourageait is \ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒɛ\ while encourageante is \ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒɑ̃t\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 90898, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
encourageait is recorded at frequency rank #41,268, classified as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒɛ\. encourageante is at rank #49,630, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒɑ̃t\.
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 90898, this pair ranks #4,350 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of encourageait vs encourageante
Shared letters: acegnortu. Private to "encourageait": i. Private to "encourageante": -.
"encourageait" · 12 letters · shape VCCVVCVCVVVC · "encourageante" · 13 letters · shape VCCVVCVCVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- encourageait ← ecnourageait · enccourageait · encoruageait · encouargeait · encouraegait · encouragaeit · encourageaitt · encourageati
- encourageante ← ecnourageante · enccourageante · encoruageante · encouargeante · encouraegante · encouragaente · encourageanet · encourageannte
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "encourageait" and "encourageante" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "encourageait" or "encourageante" show up more?
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 "encourageait" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "encourageante" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #4,350 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "encourageait" and "encourageante" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "encourageante vs encourageants". 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 #4,350 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.