Which to use
“écoute” and “escorte” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,130
- “écoute” frequency rank
- #9,480
- “escorte” frequency rank
- 10610
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | écoute | escorte |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Action d’écouter, ou (vieilli) de faire le guet. | Troupe généralement armée qui accompagne une personne, un convoi, des bagages pour les protéger ou les surveiller pendant la marche. |
Where the eye mixes écoute and escorte
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. écoute runs 6 letters (VCVVCV) against escorte's 7 (VCCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between écoute and escorte
A purely visual mix-up. écoute (\e.kut\) and escorte (\ɛs.kɔʁt\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10610, 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\. escorte is at rank #9,480, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɛs.kɔʁt\.
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 10610, this pair ranks #412,333 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of écoute vs escorte
Shared letters: ceot. Private to "écoute": ué. Private to "escorte": rs.
"écoute" · 6 letters · shape VCVVCV · "escorte" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- escorte ← ecsorte · esccorte · escoret · escorrte · escortte · escotre · escrote · esocrte
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "écoute" and "escorte" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "écoute" or "escorte"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "écoute" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "escorte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #412,333 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "écoute" and "escorte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "escorte vs escortes". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #412,333 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.