échouavséchouéeWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#41,084
“échoua” frequency rank
#48,277
“échouée” frequency rank
89361
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature échoua échouée
Definition Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de échouer. Participe passé féminin singulier de échouer.

Where the eye mixes échoua and échouée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. échoua runs 6 letters (VCCVVV) against échouée's 7 (VCCVVVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
échoua
7 ch
échouée

Why the eye confuses échoua with échouée

A purely visual mix-up. échoua (\e.ʃwa\) and échouée (\e.ʃwe\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 89361, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

échoua is recorded at frequency rank #41,084, classified as averb, pronounced \e.ʃwa\. échouée is at rank #48,277, tagged as averb, pronounced \e.ʃwe\.

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 89361, this pair ranks #5,882 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of échoua vs échouée

Shared letters: choué. Private to "échoua": a. Private to "échouée": e.

"échoua" · 6 letters · shape VCCVVV  ·  "échouée" · 7 letters · shape VCCVVVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "échoua" and "échouée" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\e.ʃwa\ versus \e.ʃwe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "échoua" vs "échouée" - which ranks higher?
"échoua" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #41,084 in our French list, against #48,277 for "échouée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "échoua" and "échouée" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "échoua" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "échouée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #5,882 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "échoua" and "échouée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "échouée vs échoués". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #5,882 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