échouéevséchouerTell them apart

Which to use

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

#48,277
“échouée” frequency rank
#12,699
“échouer” frequency rank
60976
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature échouée échouer
Definition Participe passé féminin singulier de échouer. Donner sur le sable, sur un écueil et y stationner plus ou moins longtemps, en parlant d’une embarcation voire d’un cétacé ou de poissons.

Same sound, different letters: échouée vs échouer

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. échouée (VCCVVVV) and échouer (VCCVVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
échouée
7 ch
échouer

Ear matches; page differs - échouée and échouer

This is the hard kind. échouée and échouer are pronounced identically (\e.ʃwe\) and both work as averb. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60976, 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\. échouer is at rank #12,699, 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 60976, this pair ranks #94,767 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of échouée vs échouer

Shared letters: cehoué. Private to "échouée": -. Private to "échouer": r.

"échouée" · 7 letters · shape VCCVVVV  ·  "échouer" · 7 letters · shape VCCVVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "échouée" for "échouer" ever safe?
No. They are pronounced the same (\e.ʃwe\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Which is more common, "échouée" or "échouer"?
"échouer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,699 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

You've separated the homophone pair "échouée" / "échouer". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "échouée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "échouer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #94,767 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "échouée" and "échouer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "échouée vs échoués". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #94,767 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