écouléesvsécoulerWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#26,932
“écoulées” frequency rank
#15,783
“écouler” frequency rank
42715
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature écoulées écouler
Definition Féminin pluriel de écoulé. Vendre jusqu'a épuisement ; liquider.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set écoulées and écouler apart are highlighted. They share 6 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

8 ch
écoulées
7 ch
écouler

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: écoulées and écouler carry the same recorded pronunciation, \e.ku.le\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42715, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

écoulées is recorded at frequency rank #26,932, classified as anadj, pronounced \e.ku.le\. écouler is at rank #15,783, tagged as averb, 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 42715, this pair ranks #223,510 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of écoulées vs écouler

Shared letters: celoué. Private to "écoulées": s. Private to "écouler": r.

"écoulées" · 8 letters · shape VCVVCVVC  ·  "écouler" · 7 letters · shape VCVVCVC

Frequency comparison

écoulées#26,932
écouler#15,783

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "écoulées" and "écouler" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "écoulées" is an adjective and "écouler" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "écoulées" or "écouler"?
"écouler" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,783 in our French list, against #26,932 for "écoulées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering écoulées vs écouler

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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