écouter

\e.ku.te\

/\e.ku.te\/ verb

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“écouter” has 10 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #1,646. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#1,646
frequency rank, French
1,805
“É” headwords
10
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Faire attention, prêter l’oreille pour entendre.

Corpus desk

Index FR-ecouter · écouter · French

écouter · rank #1,646 · 10 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #1,646
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 10 variants
  • BOOK-MID 1,805
  • PHOTO-FINISH économiques

Nearest frequency peer: économiques (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « écouter »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « écouter » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

écouter vs écuyer
71% similar
écouter vs écoutez
86% similar
écouter vs écoutes
86% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for écouter
PropertyValue
Headwordécouter
LanguageFrench
Part of speechVerb
IPA\e.ku.te\
Letters7
Frequency rank#1,646
Misspellings tracked10
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « écouter »

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.écouterse place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « économiques » (#1,645), « étape » (#1,647), « voitures » (#1,644). Parmi 1,805 lemmes en « É », « écouter » est au #1,646. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 10 spelling variants around écouter (IPA \e.ku.te\), averb. Corpus frequency is #1,646 among 1,805 “É” headwords. Wiktionary lists 8 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for écouter, with forms such as "céouter", "ecouter", and "éccouter". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "écuyer", "écoutez", "écoutes", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is écouter, spelled É-C-O-U-T-E-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    Faire attention, prêter l’oreille pour entendre.
  2. 2
    Prêter l’oreille, prêter attention avec plus ou moins de bienveillance.
  3. 3
    Donner quelque croyance, quelque consentement à ce qu’une personne propose ; prendre plaisir à l’entendre.
  4. 4
    Obtempérer ou obéir à quelqu’un.
  5. 5
    Se laisser aller à un sentiment ou à une passion.
  6. 6
    Regarder (un film, la télévision).
  7. 7
    Parler lentement, avec apprêt en croyant bien dire.
  8. 8
    S’inquiéter à tout propos de sa santé.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how écouter appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. – Je suis citoyen britannique ! – continua Bert, obstiné. – Vous n’êtes pas obligés d’écouter, mais rien ne me force à me taire.
  2. J’ai à la main gauche un mange-disques sur lequel nous écoutons un quarante-cinq tours de Barry Whit et un autre de Guitar Boogie.

This word in other languages

listen(English)escuchar(Español)anhören(Deutsch)escutar(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • céouter
  • ecouter
  • éccouter
  • écotuer
  • écouetr
  • écouterr
  • écoutre
  • écoutter
  • écuoter
  • éocuter

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of écouter - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.

céouter2ecouter1éccouter1écotuer2écouetr2écouterr1écoutre2écoutter1
Edit distance from "écouter"

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "écouter"?
"écouter" is spelled É-C-O-U-T-E-R. The IPA pronunciation is \e.ku.te\.
What does "écouter" mean?
As a verb, "écouter" means: Faire attention, prêter l’oreille pour entendre.
What words are commonly confused with "écouter"?
"écouter" is commonly confused with "écuyer", "écoutez", "écoutes". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "écouter"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "écouter" is \e.ku.te\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "écouter" come from?
"écouter" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "écouter", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

ajouter#1,648capital#1,652logique#1,666docteur#1,624

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (10 here; floor ≥5).

rappeler10 variantsmilliers10 variantsacteurs10 variantsunivers10 variants

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list