écouter

/\e.ku.te\/ verb

Letters

7 characters

Frequency Rank

#1,646

in French word usage

Misspellings

10

tracked variants

Confusables

20

similar word pairs

écouter is aFrenchverb. It means: Faire attention, prêter l’oreille pour entendre. Pronounced \e.ku.te\. It ranks #1,646 in French word frequency. Often confused with écuyer and écoutez.

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)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of écouter in French word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for écouter is 7 letters long, classified as averb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \e.ku.te\. Corpus data places it at rank #1,646 in overall French word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 8 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 10 documented wrong-spelling variants for écouter, with forms such as "céouter", "ecouter", and "éccouter". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "écuyer", "écoutez", "écoutes", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct French form is écouter, spelled É-C-O-U-T-E-R, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

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.

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: céouter,ecouter,éccouter,écotuer,écouetr,écouterr,écoutre,écoutter,écuoter,éocuter

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for écouter

Misspelling Variants of "écouter"

céouter7ecouter7éccouter8écotuer7écouetr7écouterr8écoutre7écoutter8
Misspelling Variants of "écouter"

Frequency rank: #1,646 in French

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. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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.

Nearby French words

Other entries that begin with the letter É in our French index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.