échouéevséchouentTell them apart

Which to use

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

#48,277
“échouée” frequency rank
#24,449
“échouent” frequency rank
72726
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature échouée échouent
Definition Participe passé féminin singulier de échouer. Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de échouer.

Where the eye mixes échouée and échouent

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. échouée runs 7 letters (VCCVVVV) against échouent's 8 (VCCVVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
échouée
8 ch
échouent

Look-alike desk: échouée vs échouent

A purely visual mix-up. échouée (\e.ʃwe\) and échouent (\e.ʃu\) 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 72726, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

échouée is recorded at frequency rank #48,277, classified as averb, pronounced \e.ʃwe\. échouent is at rank #24,449, tagged as averb, pronounced \e.ʃu\.

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 72726, this pair ranks #42,991 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of échouée vs échouent

Shared letters: cehoué. Private to "échouée": -. Private to "échouent": nt.

"échouée" · 7 letters · shape VCCVVVV  ·  "échouent" · 8 letters · shape VCCVVVCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "échouée" and "échouent" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\e.ʃwe\ versus \e.ʃu\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "échouée" or "échouent"?
"échouent" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,449 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.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "échouée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "échouent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #42,991 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "échouée" and "échouent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "échouée vs échoués". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #42,991 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