Which to use
“encourir” and “entourer” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #49,062
- “encourir” frequency rank
- #16,353
- “entourer” frequency rank
- 65415
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | encourir | entourer |
|---|---|---|
| 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). | Mettre ou disposer autour ; être ou se tenir autour de. |
Where the eye mixes encourir and entourer
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. encourir and entourer follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: encourir vs entourer
A purely visual mix-up. encourir (\ɑ̃.ku.ʁiʁ\) and entourer (\ɑ̃.tu.ʁe\) 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 65415, 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\. entourer is at rank #16,353, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.tu.ʁe\.
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 65415, this pair ranks #72,438 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of encourir vs entourer
Shared letters: enoru. Private to "encourir": ci. Private to "entourer": t.
"encourir" · 8 letters · shape VCCVVCVC · "entourer" · 8 letters · shape VCCVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "encourir" and "entourer" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "encourir" vs "entourer" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "encourir" and "entourer" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "encourir" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "entourer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #72,438 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "encourir" and "entourer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "encourir vs encourue". 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 #72,438 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.