offrirvsouvrirTell them apart

Which to use

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

#1,569
“offrir” frequency rank
#1,186
“ouvrir” frequency rank
2755
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature offrir ouvrir
Definition Présenter quelque chose à quelqu’un, en souhaitant qu’il l’accepte. Faire que ce qui était clos, fermé, ne le soit plus.

Where the eye mixes offrir and ouvrir

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
offrir
6 ch
ouvrir

Visual trap between offrir and ouvrir

A purely visual mix-up. offrir (\ɔ.fʁiʁ\) and ouvrir (\u.vʁiʁ\) 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 2755, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

offrir is recorded at frequency rank #1,569, classified as averb, pronounced \ɔ.fʁiʁ\. ouvrir is at rank #1,186, tagged as averb, pronounced \u.vʁiʁ\.

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 2755, this pair ranks #435,540 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of offrir vs ouvrir

Shared letters: ior. Private to "offrir": f. Private to "ouvrir": uv.

"offrir" · 6 letters · shape VCCCVC  ·  "ouvrir" · 6 letters · shape VVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • offrirfofrir · offirr · offrirr · offrri · offrrir · ofrfir · ofrir
  • ouvrirourvir · ouvirr · ouvrirr · ouvrri · ouvrrir · ouvvrir · ovurir · uovrir

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "offrir" and "ouvrir" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ɔ.fʁiʁ\ versus \u.vʁiʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "offrir" vs "ouvrir" - which ranks higher?
"ouvrir" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,186 in our French list, against #1,569 for "offrir". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "offrir" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ouvrir" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #435,540 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "offrir" and "ouvrir" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "offrir vs offrirai". 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 #435,540 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