Which to use
“capitale” and “captage” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,388
- “capitale” frequency rank
- #43,828
- “captage” frequency rank
- 45216
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | capitale | captage |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Ville où siègent le gouvernement et le pouvoir législatif de l’État. | Action de capter (une source, de l’eau…). |
Where the eye mixes capitale and captage
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between capitale and captage
A purely visual mix-up. capitale (\ka.pi.tal\) and captage (\kap.taʒ\) 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 45216, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
capitale is recorded at frequency rank #1,388, classified as anoun, pronounced \ka.pi.tal\. captage is at rank #43,828, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kap.taʒ\.
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 45216, this pair ranks #204,473 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of capitale vs captage
Shared letters: acept. Private to "capitale": il. Private to "captage": g.
"capitale" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV · "captage" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "capitale" for "captage" ever safe?
Which is more common, "capitale" or "captage"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "capitale" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "captage" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #204,473 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "capitale" and "captage" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cantate vs captage". 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 #204,473 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.