Which to use
“secouer” is a verb and “secours” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #14,361
- “secouer” frequency rank
- #1,889
- “secours” frequency rank
- 16250
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | secouer | secours |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Remuer quelque chose fortement et à plusieurs reprises. | Aide, assistance dans le danger, dans le besoin. |
Where the eye mixes secouer and secours
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between secouer and secours
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: secouer 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 16250, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
secouer is recorded at frequency rank #14,361, 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 16250, this pair ranks #388,702 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of secouer vs secours
Shared letters: ceorsu. Private to "secouer": -. Private to "secours": -.
"secouer" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVVC · "secours" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "secouer" and "secours" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "secouer" or "secours"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "secouer" 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 #388,702 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "secouer" and "secours" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "secouent vs secouer". 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 #388,702 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.