ouvragevsouvragesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#1,707
“ouvrage” frequency rank
#2,588
“ouvrages” frequency rank
4295
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ouvrage ouvrages
Definition Travail ; action de travailler. Pluriel de ouvrage.

Same sound, different letters: ouvrage vs ouvrages

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. ouvrage runs 7 letters (VVCCVCV) against ouvrages's 8 (VVCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
ouvrage
8 ch
ouvrages

Same sound, different spelling - ouvrage / ouvrages

This is the hard kind. ouvrage and ouvrages are pronounced identically (\u.vʁaʒ\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “ouvrage” sits inside “ouvrages”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4295, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ouvrage is recorded at frequency rank #1,707, classified as anoun, pronounced \u.vʁaʒ\. ouvrages is at rank #2,588, tagged as anoun, pronounced \u.vʁaʒ\.

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 4295, this pair ranks #431,974 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ouvrage vs ouvrages

Shared letters: aegoruv. Private to "ouvrage": -. Private to "ouvrages": s.

"ouvrage" · 7 letters · shape VVCCVCV  ·  "ouvrages" · 8 letters · shape VVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ouvrage ← ourvage · ouvarge · ouvraeg · ouvragge · ouvrgae · ouvrrage · ouvvrage · ovurage
  • ouvrages ← ourvages · ouvarges · ouvraegs · ouvragess · ouvragges · ouvragse · ouvrgaes · ouvrrages

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ouvrage" for "ouvrages" ever safe?
No. They are pronounced the same (\u.vʁaʒ\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Which is more common, "ouvrage" or "ouvrages"?
"ouvrage" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,707 in our French list, against #2,588 for "ouvrages". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

"ouvrage" and "ouvrages" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ouvrage" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ouvrages" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #431,974 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ouvrage" and "ouvrages" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ouvrables vs ouvrages". 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 #431,974 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