échappévséchoppeWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#6,450
“échappé” frequency rank
#47,111
“échoppe” frequency rank
53561
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature échappé échoppe
Definition Fou qui a été enfermé ou qui pourrait l’être. Petite boutique ordinairement en appentis et adossée contre une muraille.

Where the eye mixes échappé and échoppe

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. échappé and échoppe follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
échappé
7 ch
échoppe

Why the eye confuses échappé with échoppe

A purely visual mix-up. échappé (\e.ʃa.pe\) and échoppe (\e.ʃɔp\) 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 53561, 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\. échoppe is at rank #47,111, tagged as anoun, pronounced \e.ʃɔp\.

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 53561, this pair ranks #139,900 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of échappé vs échoppe

Shared letters: chpé. Private to "échappé": a. Private to "échoppe": eo.

"échappé" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCV  ·  "échoppe" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "échappé" for "échoppe" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\e.ʃa.pe\ versus \e.ʃɔp\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "échappé" or "échoppe"?
"échappé" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,450 in our French list, against #47,111 for "échoppe". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "échappé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "échoppe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #139,900 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "échappé" and "échoppe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "échoppe vs échouée". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #139,900 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