Which to use
“echo” and “écus” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #14,256
- “echo” frequency rank
- #33,086
- “écus” frequency rank
- 47342
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | echo | écus |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | (radiotéléphonie) Mot de code radiotéléphonique de l'OACI, OTAN et SIA pour la lettre latine E. | Pluriel de écu. |
Where the eye mixes echo and écus
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence. echo (VCCV) and écus (VCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between echo and écus
A purely visual mix-up. echo (\ˈɛko\) and écus (\e.ky\) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47342, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
echo is recorded at frequency rank #14,256, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈɛko\. écus is at rank #33,086, tagged as anoun, pronounced \e.ky\.
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 47342, this pair ranks #187,729 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of echo vs écus
Shared letters: c. Private to "echo": eho. Private to "écus": sué.
"echo" · 4 letters · shape VCCV · "écus" · 4 letters · shape VCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- echo ← ceho · eccho · echho · ecoh · ehco
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "echo" for "écus" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "echo" or "écus" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "echo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "écus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #187,729 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "echo" and "écus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "écus vs étuis". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #187,729 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.