entouraientvsentourantConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#39,781
“entouraient” frequency rank
#11,963
“entourant” frequency rank
51744
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature entouraient entourant
Definition Troisième personne du pluriel de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de entourer. Participe présent de entourer.

Where the eye mixes entouraient and entourant

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence.

11 ch
entouraient
9 ch
entourant

Look-alike desk: entouraient vs entourant

A purely visual mix-up. entouraient (\ɑ̃.tu.ʁɛ\) and entourant (\ɑ̃.tu.ʁɑ̃\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51744, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

entouraient is recorded at frequency rank #39,781, classified as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.tu.ʁɛ\. entourant is at rank #11,963, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.tu.ʁɑ̃\.

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 51744, this pair ranks #152,792 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of entouraient vs entourant

Shared letters: aenortu. Private to "entouraient": i. Private to "entourant": -.

"entouraient" · 11 letters · shape VCCVVCVVVCC  ·  "entourant" · 9 letters · shape VCCVVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • entouraientenntouraient · enoturaient · entoruaient · entouarient · entouraeint · entouraiennt · entouraientt · entouraietn
  • entourantenntourant · enoturant · entoruant · entouarnt · entourannt · entourantt · entouratn · entournat

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "entouraient" for "entourant" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ɑ̃.tu.ʁɛ\ versus \ɑ̃.tu.ʁɑ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "entouraient" vs "entourant" - which ranks higher?
"entourant" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,963 in our French list, against #39,781 for "entouraient". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "entouraient" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "entourant" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #152,792 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "entouraient" and "entourant" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "entouraient vs entraient". 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 #152,792 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