échouéevséchouésWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#48,277
“échouée” frequency rank
#47,113
“échoués” frequency rank
95390
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature échouée échoués
Definition Participe passé féminin singulier de échouer. Participe passé masculin pluriel de échouer.

Same sound, different letters: échouée vs échoués

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

7 ch
échouée
7 ch
échoués

Homophone desk: échouée vs échoués

This is the hard kind. échouée and échoués 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 differ by a single letter - e in “échouée” becomes s in “échoués”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 95390, 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\. échoués is at rank #47,113, 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 95390, this pair ranks #1,104 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of échouée vs échoués

Shared letters: choué. Private to "échouée": e. Private to "échoués": s.

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "échouée" and "échoués" be used interchangeably?
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.
In ordinary French text, does "échouée" or "échoués" show up more?
"échoués" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #47,113 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.

What to do next

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "échouée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "échoués" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,104 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "échouée" and "échoués" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "échoppe vs échouée". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,104 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