encouragentvsencouragezTell them apart

Which to use

“encouragent” and “encouragez” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#20,132
“encouragent” frequency rank
#48,492
“encouragez” frequency rank
68624
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature encouragent encouragez
Definition Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de encourager. Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de encourager.

Where the eye mixes encouragent and encouragez

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. encouragent runs 11 letters (VCCVVCVCVCC) against encouragez's 10 (VCCVVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

11 ch
encouragent
10 ch
encouragez

Why the eye confuses encouragent with encouragez

A purely visual mix-up. encouragent (\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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68624, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

encouragent is recorded at frequency rank #20,132, 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 68624, this pair ranks #58,393 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of encouragent vs encouragez

Shared letters: acegnoru. Private to "encouragent": t. Private to "encouragez": z.

"encouragent" · 11 letters · shape VCCVVCVCVCC  ·  "encouragez" · 10 letters · shape VCCVVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • encouragentecnouragent · enccouragent · encoruagent · encouargent · encouraegnt · encouragennt · encouragentt · encouragetn
  • encouragezecnouragez · enccouragez · encoruagez · encouargez · encouraegz · encouragezz · encouraggez · encouragze

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "encouragent" and "encouragez" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ɑ̃.ku.ʁaʒ\ versus \ɑ̃.ku.ʁa.ʒe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "encouragent" vs "encouragez" - which ranks higher?
"encouragent" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,132 in our French list, against #48,492 for "encouragez". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "encouragent" 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 #58,393 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "encouragent" 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 #58,393 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