ouvresvsouvrirTell them apart

Which to use

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

#16,436
“ouvres” frequency rank
#1,186
“ouvrir” frequency rank
17622
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ouvres ouvrir
Definition Deuxième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de ouvrir. Faire que ce qui était clos, fermé, ne le soit plus.

Where the eye mixes ouvres and ouvrir

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

6 ch
ouvres
6 ch
ouvrir

Look-alike desk: ouvres vs ouvrir

A purely visual mix-up. ouvres (\uvʁ\) 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 17622, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ouvres is recorded at frequency rank #16,436, classified as averb, pronounced \uvʁ\. 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 17622, this pair ranks #382,283 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ouvres vs ouvrir

Shared letters: oruv. Private to "ouvres": es. Private to "ouvrir": i.

"ouvres" · 6 letters · shape VVCCVC  ·  "ouvrir" · 6 letters · shape VVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ouvresourves · ouvers · ouvress · ouvrres · ouvrse · ouvvres · ovures · uovres
  • ouvrirourvir · ouvirr · ouvrirr · ouvrri · ouvrrir · ouvvrir · ovurir · uovrir

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ouvres" and "ouvrir" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\uvʁ\ versus \u.vʁiʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "ouvres" or "ouvrir" show up more?
"ouvrir" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,186 in our French list, against #16,436 for "ouvres". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ouvres" 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 #382,283 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ouvres" and "ouvrir" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "oeuvrer vs ouvres". 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 #382,283 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