échouéevsécrouéConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#48,277
“échouée” frequency rank
#42,699
“écroué” frequency rank
90976
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature échouée écroué
Definition Participe passé féminin singulier de échouer. Participe passé masculin singulier de écrouer.

Where the eye mixes échouée and écroué

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. échouée runs 7 letters (VCCVVVV) against écroué's 6 (VCCVVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
échouée
6 ch
écroué

Look-alike desk: échouée vs écroué

A purely visual mix-up. échouée (\e.ʃwe\) and écroué (\e.kʁu.e\) 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 90976, 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\. écroué is at rank #42,699, tagged as averb, pronounced \e.kʁu.e\.

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 90976, this pair ranks #4,276 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of échouée vs écroué

Shared letters: coué. Private to "échouée": eh. Private to "écroué": r.

"échouée" · 7 letters · shape VCCVVVV  ·  "écroué" · 6 letters · shape VCCVVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "échouée" and "écroué" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\e.ʃwe\ versus \e.kʁu.e\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "échouée" or "écroué"?
"écroué" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #42,699 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

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 "écroué" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #4,276 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "échouée" and "écroué" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "échouée vs échoués". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #4,276 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