rencontrevsrencontresTell them apart

Which to use

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

#590
“rencontre” frequency rank
#2,014
“rencontres” frequency rank
2604
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rencontre rencontres
Definition Hasard, occasion qui fait trouver fortuitement une personne, une chose. Pluriel de rencontre.

Same sound, different letters: rencontre vs rencontres

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 9 letters.

9 ch
rencontre
10 ch
rencontres

Ear matches; page differs - rencontre and rencontres

This is the hard kind. rencontre and rencontres are pronounced identically (\ʁɑ̃.kɔ̃tʁ\) 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) - “rencontre” sits inside “rencontres”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2604, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rencontre is recorded at frequency rank #590, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁɑ̃.kɔ̃tʁ\. rencontres is at rank #2,014, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁɑ̃.kɔ̃tʁ\.

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 2604, this pair ranks #435,820 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of rencontre vs rencontres

Shared letters: cenort. Private to "rencontre": -. Private to "rencontres": s.

"rencontre" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCCV  ·  "rencontres" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • rencontreerncontre · recnontre · renccontre · rencnotre · renconntre · renconrte · renconter · rencontrre
  • rencontreserncontres · recnontres · renccontres · rencnotres · renconntres · renconrtes · renconters · rencontress

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "rencontre" and "rencontres" be used interchangeably?
No. They are pronounced the same (\ʁɑ̃.kɔ̃tʁ\), 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, "rencontre" or "rencontres"?
"rencontre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #590 in our French list, against #2,014 for "rencontres". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've separated the homophone pair "rencontre" / "rencontres". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "rencontre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rencontres" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #435,820 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rencontre" and "rencontres" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rencontrais vs rencontres". 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 #435,820 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