entouraitvsentourantWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#35,930
“entourait” frequency rank
#11,963
“entourant” frequency rank
47893
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature entourait entourant
Definition Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de entourer. Participe présent de entourer.

Where the eye mixes entourait and entourant

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence.

9 ch
entourait
9 ch
entourant

Why the eye confuses entourait with entourant

A purely visual mix-up. entourait (\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 a single letter - i in “entourait” becomes n in “entourant”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47893, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

entourait is recorded at frequency rank #35,930, 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 47893, this pair ranks #183,318 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of entourait vs entourant

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

"entourait" · 9 letters · shape VCCVVCVVC  ·  "entourant" · 9 letters · shape VCCVVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • entouraitenntourait · enoturait · entoruait · entouarit · entouraitt · entourati · entouriat · entourrait
  • entourantenntourant · enoturant · entoruant · entouarnt · entourannt · entourantt · entouratn · entournat

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "entourait" and "entourant" mean the same thing in a sentence?
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.
Which is more common, "entourait" or "entourant"?
"entourant" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,963 in our French list, against #35,930 for "entourait". 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 "entourait" 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 #183,318 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "entourait" and "entourant" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "entourait vs entrerait". 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 #183,318 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