écopevsécrieWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: écope is a noun, écrie is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“écope” is a noun and “écrie” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#35,341
“écope” frequency rank
#43,224
“écrie” frequency rank
78565
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature écope écrie
Definition Pelle de bois creuse qui sert à vider l’eau qui entre dans un bateau. Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de écrier.

Where the eye mixes écope and écrie

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. écope (VCVCV) and écrie (VCCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
écope
5 ch
écrie

Look-alike desk: écope vs écrie

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: écope is \e.kɔp\ while écrie is \e.kʁi\. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 78565, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

écope is recorded at frequency rank #35,341, classified as anoun, pronounced \e.kɔp\. écrie is at rank #43,224, tagged as averb, pronounced \e.kʁi\.

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 78565, this pair ranks #25,413 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of écope vs écrie

Shared letters: ceé. Private to "écope": op. Private to "écrie": ir.

"écope" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV  ·  "écrie" · 5 letters · shape VCCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "écope" for "écrie" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "écope" is a noun and "écrie" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "écope" or "écrie"?
"écope" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,341 in our French list, against #43,224 for "écrie". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "écope" and "écrie" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "écope" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "écrie" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #25,413 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "écope" and "écrie" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "écrie vs éprise". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #25,413 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