capotervscaptéeConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#38,690
“capoter” frequency rank
#39,691
“captée” frequency rank
78381
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature capoter captée
Definition Être renversé sens dessus dessous, en parlant d’une embarcation, d’une automobile, d’un avion. Participe passé féminin singulier du verbe capter.

Where the eye mixes capoter and captée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. capoter runs 7 letters (CVCVCVC) against captée's 6 (CVCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
capoter
6 ch
captée

Why the eye confuses capoter with captée

A purely visual mix-up. capoter (\ka.pɔ.te\) and captée (\kap.te\) 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 78381, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

capoter is recorded at frequency rank #38,690, classified as averb, pronounced \ka.pɔ.te\. captée is at rank #39,691, tagged as averb, pronounced \kap.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 78381, this pair ranks #25,897 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of capoter vs captée

Shared letters: acept. Private to "capoter": or. Private to "captée": é.

"capoter" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "captée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • capoter ← acpoter · caopter · capoetr · capoterr · capotre · capotter · cappoter · captoer

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "capoter" for "captée" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ka.pɔ.te\ versus \kap.te\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "capoter" vs "captée" - which ranks higher?
"capoter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #38,690 in our French list, against #39,691 for "captée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "capoter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "captée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #25,897 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "capoter" and "captée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "captée vs cryptée". 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 #25,897 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