Which to use
“échoua” is a verb and “écrou” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #41,084
- “échoua” frequency rank
- #34,814
- “écrou” frequency rank
- 75898
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | échoua | écrou |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de échouer. | Pièce d’assemblage mécanique d’acier, ou de toute autre matière solide, percée d’un taraudage, et dans lequel entre une vis ou une tige filetée en rotation. |
Where the eye mixes échoua and écrou
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. échoua runs 6 letters (VCCVVV) against écrou's 5 (VCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between échoua and écrou
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: échoua is \e.ʃwa\ while écrou is \e.kʁu\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 75898, 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\. écrou is at rank #34,814, tagged as anoun, pronounced \e.kʁu\.
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 75898, this pair ranks #32,704 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of échoua vs écrou
Shared letters: coué. Private to "échoua": ah. Private to "écrou": r.
"échoua" · 6 letters · shape VCCVVV · "écrou" · 5 letters · shape VCCVV
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "échoua" for "écrou" ever safe?
Frequency check: "échoua" vs "écrou" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "échoua" and "écrou" 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 "écrou" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #32,704 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "échoua" and "écrou" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "échoua vs échouée". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #32,704 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.