Which to use
“écoutées” and “écouter” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #44,822
- “écoutées” frequency rank
- #1,646
- “écouter” frequency rank
- 46468
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | écoutées | écouter |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Participe passé féminin pluriel de écouter. | Faire attention, prêter l’oreille pour entendre. |
Same sound, different letters: écoutées vs écouter
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. écoutées runs 8 letters (VCVVCVVC) against écouter's 7 (VCVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Ear matches; page differs - écoutées and écouter
This is the hard kind. écoutées 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 differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46468, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
écoutées is recorded at frequency rank #44,822, 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 46468, this pair ranks #194,695 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of écoutées vs écouter
Shared letters: ceotué. Private to "écoutées": s. Private to "écouter": r.
"écoutées" · 8 letters · shape VCVVCVVC · "écouter" · 7 letters · shape VCVVCVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "écoutées" for "écouter" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "écoutées" or "écouter" show up more?
After this comparison
You've separated the homophone pair "écoutées" / "écouter". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "écoutées" 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 #194,695 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "écoutées" and "écouter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "écoutées vs écouteur". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #194,695 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.