rencontrevsrencontrezWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: rencontre is a noun, rencontrez is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“rencontre” is a noun and “rencontrez” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#590
“rencontre” frequency rank
#19,967
“rencontrez” frequency rank
20557
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rencontre rencontrez
Definition Hasard, occasion qui fait trouver fortuitement une personne, une chose. Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de rencontrer.

Where the eye mixes rencontre and rencontrez

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence.

9 ch
rencontre
10 ch
rencontrez

Look-alike desk: rencontre vs rencontrez

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: rencontre is \ʁɑ̃.kɔ̃tʁ\ while rencontrez is \ʁɑ̃.kɔ̃.tʁe\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “rencontre” sits inside “rencontrez”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20557, 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\. rencontrez is at rank #19,967, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁɑ̃.kɔ̃.tʁe\.

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 20557, this pair ranks #367,671 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of rencontre vs rencontrez

Shared letters: cenort. Private to "rencontre": -. Private to "rencontrez": z.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • rencontreerncontre · recnontre · renccontre · rencnotre · renconntre · renconrte · renconter · rencontrre
  • rencontrezerncontrez · recnontrez · renccontrez · rencnotrez · renconntrez · renconrtez · renconterz · rencontrezz

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "rencontre" for "rencontrez" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "rencontre" is a noun and "rencontrez" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "rencontre" or "rencontrez" show up more?
"rencontre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #590 in our French list, against #19,967 for "rencontrez". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "rencontre" and "rencontrez" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "rencontre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rencontrez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #367,671 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rencontre" and "rencontrez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rencontrerez vs rencontrez". 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 #367,671 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