entourévsentourentWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#4,574
“entouré” frequency rank
#10,699
“entourent” frequency rank
15273
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature entouré entourent
Definition Participe passé masculin du verbe entourer. Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de entourer.

Where the eye mixes entouré and entourent

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. entouré runs 7 letters (VCCVVCV) against entourent's 9 (VCCVVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
entouré
9 ch
entourent

Visual trap between entouré and entourent

A purely visual mix-up. entouré (\ɑ̃.tu.ʁe\) 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 differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15273, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

entouré is recorded at frequency rank #4,574, classified as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.tu.ʁe\. 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 15273, this pair ranks #393,072 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of entouré vs entourent

Shared letters: enortu. Private to "entouré": é. Private to "entourent": -.

"entouré" · 7 letters · shape VCCVVCV  ·  "entourent" · 9 letters · shape VCCVVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • entourent ← enntourent · enoturent · entoruent · entouernt · entourennt · entourentt · entouretn · entournet

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "entouré" for "entourent" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ɑ̃.tu.ʁe\ versus \ɑ̃.tuʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "entouré" or "entourent"?
"entouré" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,574 in our French list, against #10,699 for "entourent". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "entouré" 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 #393,072 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "entouré" and "entourent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "entourent vs entrèrent". 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 #393,072 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