Which to use
“encourir” and “encourue” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #49,062
- “encourir” frequency rank
- #43,410
- “encourue” frequency rank
- 92472
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | encourir | encourue |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Attirer sur soi, faciliter la survenue, la réalisation, d'un châtiment, d'une peine venant d’une autorité supérieure, d'une pénalité, d'un jugement moral. Le sens de ce verbe contient une connotation de probabilité mais non de certitude : l'objet encouru n'est pas systématiquement réalisé (une peine encourue n'est pas systématiquement appliquée). | Participe passé féminin singulier de encourir. |
Where the eye mixes encourir and encourue
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. encourir (VCCVVCVC) and encourue (VCCVVCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses encourir with encourue
A purely visual mix-up. encourir (\ɑ̃.ku.ʁiʁ\) 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 share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 92472, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
encourir is recorded at frequency rank #49,062, classified as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.ku.ʁiʁ\. 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 92472, this pair ranks #2,968 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of encourir vs encourue
Shared letters: cenoru. Private to "encourir": i. Private to "encourue": -.
"encourir" · 8 letters · shape VCCVVCVC · "encourue" · 8 letters · shape VCCVVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "encourir" for "encourue" ever safe?
Frequency check: "encourir" vs "encourue" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "encourir" 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 #2,968 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "encourir" and "encourue" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "encourir vs enfouir". 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 #2,968 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.