entouraitvsentourentWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#35,930
“entourait” frequency rank
#10,699
“entourent” frequency rank
46629
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature entourait entourent
Definition Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de entourer. Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de entourer.

Where the eye mixes entourait and entourent

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.

9 ch
entourait
9 ch
entourent

Look-alike desk: entourait vs entourent

A purely visual mix-up. entourait (\ɑ̃.tu.ʁɛ\) and entourent (\ɑ̃.tuʁ\) 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 46629, 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\. entourent is at rank #10,699, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.tuʁ\.

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 46629, this pair ranks #193,418 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of entourait vs entourent

Shared letters: enortu. Private to "entourait": ai. Private to "entourent": -.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • entouraitenntourait · enoturait · entoruait · entouarit · entouraitt · entourati · entouriat · entourrait
  • entourentenntourent · enoturent · entoruent · entouernt · entourennt · entourentt · entouretn · entournet

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "entourait" and "entourent" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ɑ̃.tu.ʁɛ\ versus \ɑ̃.tuʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "entourait" or "entourent" show up more?
"entourent" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,699 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.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "entourait" and "entourent" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "entourait" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "entourent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #193,418 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "entourait" and "entourent" 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 #193,418 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