échouevsécoleWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: échoue is a verb, école is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“échoue” is a verb and “école” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#13,092
“échoue” frequency rank
#421
“école” frequency rank
13513
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature échoue école
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de échouer. Lieu dédié à l’apprentissage.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set échoue and école apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
échoue
5 ch
école

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: échoue is \e.ʃu\ while école is \e.kɔl\. 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 13513, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

échoue is recorded at frequency rank #13,092, classified as averb, pronounced \e.ʃu\. école is at rank #421, tagged as anoun, pronounced \e.kɔl\.

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 13513, this pair ranks #400,711 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of échoue vs école

Shared letters: ceoé. Private to "échoue": hu. Private to "école": l.

"échoue" · 6 letters · shape VCCVVV  ·  "école" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV

Frequency comparison

échoue#13,092
école#421

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "échoue" and "école" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "échoue" is a verb and "école" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "échoue" or "école"?
"école" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #421 in our French list, against #13,092 for "échoue". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering échoue vs école

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “échoue”; for a noun, it's “école”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “échoue” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list