Which to use
“encouragée” and “encouragées” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #22,841
- “encouragée” frequency rank
- #43,919
- “encouragées” frequency rank
- 66760
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | encouragée | encouragées |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Participe passé féminin singulier de encourager. | Participe passé féminin pluriel de encourager. |
Same sound, different letters: encouragée vs encouragées
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 10 letters. encouragée runs 10 letters (VCCVVCVCVV) against encouragées's 11 (VCCVVCVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Same sound, different spelling - encouragée / encouragées
This is the hard kind. encouragée and encouragées are pronounced identically (\ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒe\) and both work as averb. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “encouragée” sits inside “encouragées”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66760, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
encouragée is recorded at frequency rank #22,841, classified as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒe\. encouragées is at rank #43,919, 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 66760, this pair ranks #66,377 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of encouragée vs encouragées
Shared letters: acegnorué. Private to "encouragée": -. Private to "encouragées": s.
"encouragée" · 10 letters · shape VCCVVCVCVV · "encouragées" · 11 letters · shape VCCVVCVCVVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "encouragée" and "encouragées" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "encouragée" or "encouragées"?
Useful next steps
"encouragée" and "encouragées" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "encouragée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "encouragées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #66,377 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "encouragée" and "encouragées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "encouragées vs encouragez". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #66,377 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.