écopevsécrouéWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#35,341
“écope” frequency rank
#42,699
“écroué” frequency rank
78040
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature écope écroué
Definition Pelle de bois creuse qui sert à vider l’eau qui entre dans un bateau. Participe passé masculin singulier de écrouer.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set écope and écroué apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
écope
6 ch
écroué

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: écope is \e.kɔp\ while écroué is \e.kʁu.e\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 78040, 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\. 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 78040, this pair ranks #26,783 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of écope vs écroué

Shared letters: coé. Private to "écope": ep. Private to "écroué": ru.

"écope" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV  ·  "écroué" · 6 letters · shape VCCVVV

Frequency comparison

écope#35,341
écroué#42,699

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "écope" and "écroué" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "écope" is a noun and "écroué" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "écope" or "écroué"?
"écope" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,341 in our French list, against #42,699 for "écroué". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering écope vs écroué

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “écope”; for a verb, it's “écroué”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “écope” 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