Which to use
“échouée” is a verb and “écoulée” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #48,277
- “échouée” frequency rank
- #20,894
- “écoulée” frequency rank
- 69171
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | échouée | écoulée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Participe passé féminin singulier de échouer. | Féminin singulier de écoulé. |
Where the eye mixes échouée and écoulée
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. échouée (VCCVVVV) and écoulée (VCVVCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between échouée and écoulée
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: échouée is \e.ʃwe\ while écoulée is \e.ku.le\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 69171, 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\. écoulée is at rank #20,894, tagged as anadj, pronounced \e.ku.le\.
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 69171, this pair ranks #56,194 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of échouée vs écoulée
Shared letters: ceoué. Private to "échouée": h. Private to "écoulée": l.
"échouée" · 7 letters · shape VCCVVVV · "écoulée" · 7 letters · shape VCVVCVV
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "échouée" and "écoulée" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "échouée" or "écoulée"?
After this comparison
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 "écoulée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #56,194 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "échouée" and "écoulée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "échouée vs échoués". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #56,194 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.