Which to use
“secouée” is a verb and “secours” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #32,593
- “secouée” frequency rank
- #1,889
- “secours” frequency rank
- 34482
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | secouée | secours |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Participe passé féminin singulier de secouer. | Aide, assistance dans le danger, dans le besoin. |
Where the eye mixes secouée and secours
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. secouée (CVCVVVV) and secours (CVCVVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between secouée and secours
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: secouée is \sə.kwe\ while secours is \sə.kuʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34482, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
secouée is recorded at frequency rank #32,593, classified as averb, pronounced \sə.kwe\. secours is at rank #1,889, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sə.kuʁ\.
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 34482, this pair ranks #283,522 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of secouée vs secours
Shared letters: ceosu. Private to "secouée": é. Private to "secours": r.
"secouée" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVVV · "secours" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- secours ← escours · sceours · seccours · secorus · secourrs · secourss · secousr · secuors
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "secouée" and "secours" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "secouée" vs "secours" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "secouée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "secours" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #283,522 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "secouée" and "secours" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "secouée vs secouent". 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 #283,522 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.