Which to use
“échouée” and “écoule” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #48,277
- “échouée” frequency rank
- #17,596
- “écoule” frequency rank
- 65873
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | échouée | écoule |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Participe passé féminin singulier de échouer. | Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de écouler. |
Where the eye mixes échouée and écoule
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. échouée runs 7 letters (VCCVVVV) against écoule's 6 (VCVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: échouée vs écoule
A purely visual mix-up. échouée (\e.ʃwe\) and écoule (\e.kul\) 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 65873, 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\. écoule is at rank #17,596, tagged as averb, pronounced \e.kul\.
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 65873, this pair ranks #70,393 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of échouée vs écoule
Shared letters: ceoué. Private to "échouée": h. Private to "écoule": l.
"échouée" · 7 letters · shape VCCVVVV · "écoule" · 6 letters · shape VCVVCV
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "échouée" and "écoule" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "échouée" vs "écoule" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "échouée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "écoule" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #70,393 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "échouée" and "écoule" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "échouée vs échoués". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #70,393 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.