échappévséchappéesWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: échappé is a noun, échappées is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“échappé” is a noun and “échappées” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#6,450
“échappé” frequency rank
#38,111
“échappées” frequency rank
44561
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature échappé échappées
Definition Fou qui a été enfermé ou qui pourrait l’être. Féminin pluriel de échappé.

Same sound, different letters: échappé vs échappées

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. échappé runs 7 letters (VCCVCCV) against échappées's 9 (VCCVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
échappé
9 ch
échappées

Ear matches; page differs - échappé and échappées

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: échappé and échappées carry the same recorded pronunciation, \e.ʃa.pe\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “échappé” sits inside “échappées”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44561, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

échappé is recorded at frequency rank #6,450, classified as anoun, pronounced \e.ʃa.pe\. échappées is at rank #38,111, tagged as anadj, pronounced \e.ʃa.pe\.

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 44561, this pair ranks #209,559 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of échappé vs échappées

Shared letters: achpé. Private to "échappé": -. Private to "échappées": es.

"échappé" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCV  ·  "échappées" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "échappé" for "échappées" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "échappé" is a noun and "échappées" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "échappé" or "échappées"?
"échappé" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,450 in our French list, against #38,111 for "échappées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've separated the homophone pair "échappé" / "échappées". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "échappé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "échappées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #209,559 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "échappé" and "échappées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "échappées vs échoppes". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #209,559 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