Which to use
“écoute” is a noun and “écoutée” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,130
- “écoute” frequency rank
- #25,175
- “écoutée” frequency rank
- 26305
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | écoute | écoutée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Action d’écouter, ou (vieilli) de faire le guet. | Participe passé féminin singulier de écouter. |
Where the eye mixes écoute and écoutée
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. écoute runs 6 letters (VCVVCV) against écoutée's 7 (VCVVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between écoute and écoutée
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: écoute is \e.kut\ while écoutée is \e.ku.te\. 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 26305, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
écoute is recorded at frequency rank #1,130, classified as anoun, pronounced \e.kut\. 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 26305, this pair ranks #335,856 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of écoute vs écoutée
Shared letters: ceotué. Private to "écoute": -. Private to "écoutée": -.
"écoute" · 6 letters · shape VCVVCV · "écoutée" · 7 letters · shape VCVVCVV
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "écoute" and "écoutée" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "écoute" vs "écoutée" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "écoute" and "écoutée" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "écoute" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "écoutée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #335,856 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "écoute" and "écoutée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "échouée vs écoutée". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #335,856 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.