écouter
French, verb/e.ku.te/
écouter is spelled É-C-O-U-T-E-R (7 letters) and appears 51 times per million words in written French, the 1,629th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Écouter is a French verb meaning “to listen” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Faire attention, prêter l’oreille pour entendre”.
What does écouter mean in English?
verb
- 1
to listen
- 2
to listen to
J’écoute la radio.
- 3
Canadato watch (a film or television)
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
verb: 1. Faire attention, prêter l’oreille pour entendre. 2. Prêter l’oreille, prêter attention avec plus ou moins de bienveillance. 3. Donner quelque croyance, quelque consentement à ce qu’une personne propose ; prendre plaisir à l’entendre. 4. Obtempérer ou obéir à quelqu’un.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of écouter
- avoir + past participle infinitive multiword-construction
- écoutant gerund participle present
- ayant + past participle gerund multiword-construction participle
- écouté participle past
- écoute first-person indicative present
- écoutes indicative present second-person
- écoutons first-person indicative plural
- écoutez indicative plural present
- écoutent indicative plural present
- écoutais first-person imperfect indicative
- écoutait imperfect indicative singular
- écoutions first-person imperfect indicative
- écoutiez imperfect indicative plural
- écoutaient imperfect indicative plural
- écoutai first-person historic indicative
- écoutas historic indicative past
- écouta historic indicative past
- écoutâmes first-person historic indicative
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce écouter?
- /e.ku.te/
- \e.ku.te\
- [e.ku.te]
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to écouter
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is écouter in French?
écouter appears 51 times per million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).