écartéesvsécoutéesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“écartées” and “écoutées” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#30,031
“écartées” frequency rank
#44,822
“écoutées” frequency rank
74853
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature écartées écoutées
Definition Participe passé féminin pluriel de écarter. Participe passé féminin pluriel de écouter.

Where the eye mixes écartées and écoutées

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. écartées (VCVCCVVC) and écoutées (VCVVCVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

8 ch
écartées
8 ch
écoutées

Why the eye confuses écartées with écoutées

A purely visual mix-up. écartées (\e.kaʁ.te\) and écoutées (\e.ku.te\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 74853, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

écartées is recorded at frequency rank #30,031, classified as averb, pronounced \e.kaʁ.te\. écoutées is at rank #44,822, tagged as averb, pronounced \e.ku.te\.

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 74853, this pair ranks #35,822 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of écartées vs écoutées

Shared letters: cesté. Private to "écartées": ar. Private to "écoutées": ou.

"écartées" · 8 letters · shape VCVCCVVC  ·  "écoutées" · 8 letters · shape VCVVCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "écartées" and "écoutées" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\e.kaʁ.te\ versus \e.ku.te\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "écartées" vs "écoutées" - which ranks higher?
"écartées" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,031 in our French list, against #44,822 for "écoutées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "écartées" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "écoutées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #35,822 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "écartées" and "écoutées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "écoutées vs écouteur". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #35,822 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list