écoutéevsécoutezWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“écoutée” and “écoutez” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#25,175
“écoutée” frequency rank
#5,717
“écoutez” frequency rank
30892
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature écoutée écoutez
Definition Participe passé féminin singulier de écouter. Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de écouter.

Same sound, different letters: écoutée vs écoutez

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. écoutée (VCVVCVV) and écoutez (VCVVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
écoutée
7 ch
écoutez

Ear matches; page differs - écoutée and écoutez

This is the hard kind. écoutée and écoutez 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 30892, 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\. écoutez is at rank #5,717, 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 30892, this pair ranks #307,344 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of écoutée vs écoutez

Shared letters: ceotué. Private to "écoutée": -. Private to "écoutez": z.

"écoutée" · 7 letters · shape VCVVCVV  ·  "écoutez" · 7 letters · shape VCVVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "écoutée" for "écoutez" ever safe?
No. They are pronounced the same (\e.ku.te\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Which is more common, "écoutée" or "écoutez"?
"écoutez" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,717 in our French list, against #25,175 for "écoutée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

"écoutée" and "écoutez" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "écoutée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "écoutez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #307,344 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "écoutée" and "écoutez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "échouée vs écoutée". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #307,344 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list