éclatéevsécoutéeWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: éclatée is a adjective, écoutée is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“éclatée” is an adjective and “écoutée” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#31,304
“éclatée” frequency rank
#25,175
“écoutée” frequency rank
56479
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature éclatée écoutée
Definition Féminin singulier de éclaté. Participe passé féminin singulier de écouter.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set éclatée and écoutée apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

7 ch
éclatée
7 ch
écoutée

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: éclatée is \e.kla.te\ while écoutée is \e.ku.te\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56479, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

éclatée is recorded at frequency rank #31,304, classified as anadj, pronounced \e.kla.te\. écoutée is at rank #25,175, tagged as averb, pronounced \e.ku.te\.

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 56479, this pair ranks #120,877 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of éclatée vs écoutée

Shared letters: ceté. Private to "éclatée": al. Private to "écoutée": ou.

"éclatée" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVV  ·  "écoutée" · 7 letters · shape VCVVCVV

Frequency comparison

éclatée#31,304
écoutée#25,175

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "éclatée" and "écoutée" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "éclatée" is an adjective and "écoutée" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "éclatée" or "écoutée"?
"écoutée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,175 in our French list, against #31,304 for "éclatée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering éclatée vs écoutée

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “éclatée”; for a verb, it's “écoutée”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “éclatée” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list