écroulevsécroulerWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#19,432
“écroule” frequency rank
#23,079
“écrouler” frequency rank
42511
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature écroule écrouler
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de écrouler. Tomber en s’affaissant.

Where the eye mixes écroule and écrouler

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.

7 ch
écroule
8 ch
écrouler

Visual trap between écroule and écrouler

A purely visual mix-up. écroule (\e.kʁul\) and écrouler (\e.kʁu.le\) 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 extra letter(s) - “écroule” sits inside “écrouler”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42511, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

écroule is recorded at frequency rank #19,432, classified as averb, pronounced \e.kʁul\. écrouler is at rank #23,079, tagged as averb, pronounced \e.kʁu.le\.

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 42511, this pair ranks #225,066 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of écroule vs écrouler

Shared letters: celorué. Private to "écroule": -. Private to "écrouler": -.

"écroule" · 7 letters · shape VCCVVCV  ·  "écrouler" · 8 letters · shape VCCVVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "écroule" and "écrouler" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\e.kʁul\ versus \e.kʁu.le\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "écroule" vs "écrouler" - which ranks higher?
"écroule" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,432 in our French list, against #23,079 for "écrouler". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "écroule" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "écrouler" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #225,066 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "écroule" and "écrouler" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "échouée vs écroule". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #225,066 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