encourageantvsencouragementWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: encourageant is a adjective, encouragement is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“encourageant” is an adjective and “encouragement” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#15,367
“encourageant” frequency rank
#14,921
“encouragement” frequency rank
30288
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature encourageant encouragement
Definition Qui encourage. Ce qui encourage.

Letter map: encourageant vs encouragement

Shared letters muted; letters that set encourageant and encouragement apart highlighted. Shared run: 11. encourageant runs 12 letters (VCCVVCVCVVCC) against encouragement's 13 (VCCVVCVCVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

12 ch
encourageant
13 ch
encouragement

Grammar separator: encourageant vs encouragement

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: encourageant is anadjective and encouragementanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30288, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

encourageant is recorded at frequency rank #15,367, classified as anadj. encouragement is at rank #14,921, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɑ̃.ku.ʁaʒ.mɑ̃\.

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 30288, this pair ranks #311,349 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of encourageant vs encouragement

Shared letters: acegnortu. Private to "encourageant": -. Private to "encouragement": m.

"encourageant" · 12 letters · shape VCCVVCVCVVCC  ·  "encouragement" · 13 letters · shape VCCVVCVCVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • encourageantecnourageant · enccourageant · encoruageant · encouargeant · encouraegant · encouragaent · encourageannt · encourageantt
  • encouragementecnouragement · enccouragement · encoruagement · encouargement · encouraegment · encourageemnt · encouragemennt · encouragementt

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "encourageant" and "encouragement" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "encourageant" is an adjective and "encouragement" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "encourageant" or "encouragement" show up more?
"encouragement" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,921 in our French list, against #15,367 for "encourageant". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "encourageant" and "encouragement".

  • Full dictionary entry for "encourageant" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "encouragement" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #311,349 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "encourageant" and "encouragement" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "encourageant vs encourageante". 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 #311,349 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