Which to use
“écouler” is a verb and “écoulés” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #15,783
- “écouler” frequency rank
- #23,075
- “écoulés” frequency rank
- 38858
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | écouler | écoulés |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Vendre jusqu'a épuisement ; liquider. | Masculin pluriel de écoulé. |
Same sound, different letters: écouler vs écoulés
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. écouler and écoulés follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Ear matches; page differs - écouler and écoulés
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: écouler and écoulés carry the same recorded pronunciation, \e.ku.le\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is averb, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38858, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
écouler is recorded at frequency rank #15,783, classified as averb, pronounced \e.ku.le\. écoulés is at rank #23,075, tagged as anadj, 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 38858, this pair ranks #252,309 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of écouler vs écoulés
Shared letters: cloué. Private to "écouler": er. Private to "écoulés": s.
"écouler" · 7 letters · shape VCVVCVC · "écoulés" · 7 letters · shape VCVVCVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "écouler" and "écoulés" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "écouler" or "écoulés" show up more?
After this comparison
"écouler" and "écoulés" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "écouler" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "écoulés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #252,309 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "écouler" and "écoulés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "échoués vs écoulés". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #252,309 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.