ouvrevsouvrentWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#1,369
“ouvre” frequency rank
#6,724
“ouvrent” frequency rank
8093
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ouvre ouvrent
Definition Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de ouvrir. Troisième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de ouvrir.

Same sound, different letters: ouvre vs ouvrent

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. ouvre runs 5 letters (VVCCV) against ouvrent's 7 (VVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
ouvre
7 ch
ouvrent

Same sound, different spelling - ouvre / ouvrent

This is the hard kind. ouvre and ouvrent are pronounced identically (\uvʁ\) and both work as averb. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “ouvre” sits inside “ouvrent”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8093, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ouvre is recorded at frequency rank #1,369, classified as averb, pronounced \uvʁ\. ouvrent is at rank #6,724, tagged as averb, pronounced \uvʁ\.

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 8093, this pair ranks #421,168 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ouvre vs ouvrent

Shared letters: eoruv. Private to "ouvre": -. Private to "ouvrent": nt.

"ouvre" · 5 letters · shape VVCCV  ·  "ouvrent" · 7 letters · shape VVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ouvre ← ourve · ouver · ouvrre · ouvvre · ovure · uovre
  • ouvrent ← ourvent · ouvernt · ouvrennt · ouvrentt · ouvretn · ouvrnet · ouvrrent · ouvvrent

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ouvre" and "ouvrent" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\uvʁ\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "ouvre" vs "ouvrent" - which ranks higher?
"ouvre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,369 in our French list, against #6,724 for "ouvrent". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ouvre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ouvrent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #421,168 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ouvre" and "ouvrent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ouvrent vs ouvrirent". 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 #421,168 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