Which to use
“écoutée” and “écouter” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #25,175
- “écoutée” frequency rank
- #1,646
- “écouter” frequency rank
- 26821
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | écoutée | écouter |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Participe passé féminin singulier de écouter. | Faire attention, prêter l’oreille pour entendre. |
Same sound, different letters: écoutée vs écouter
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters.
Ear matches; page differs - écoutée and écouter
This is the hard kind. écoutée and écouter are pronounced identically (\e.ku.te\) and both work as averb. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26821, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
écoutée is recorded at frequency rank #25,175, classified as averb, pronounced \e.ku.te\. écouter is at rank #1,646, 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 26821, this pair ranks #332,660 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of écoutée vs écouter
Shared letters: ceotué. Private to "écoutée": -. Private to "écouter": r.
"écoutée" · 7 letters · shape VCVVCVV · "écouter" · 7 letters · shape VCVVCVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "écoutée" and "écouter" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "écoutée" or "écouter" show up more?
Useful next steps
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "écoutée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "écouter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #332,660 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "écoutée" and "écouter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "échouée vs écoutée". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #332,660 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.