captevscomteWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: capte is a verb, comte is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“capte” is a verb and “comte” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#14,876
“capte” frequency rank
#1,947
“comte” frequency rank
16823
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature capte comte
Definition Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent du verbe capter. Dignitaire des derniers temps de l’empire romain et du bas-empire.

Where the eye mixes capte and comte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
capte
5 ch
comte

Look-alike desk: capte vs comte

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: capte is \kapt\ while comte is \kɔ̃t\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16823, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

capte is recorded at frequency rank #14,876, classified as averb, pronounced \kapt\. comte is at rank #1,947, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔ̃t\.

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 16823, this pair ranks #386,089 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of capte vs comte

Shared letters: cet. Private to "capte": ap. Private to "comte": mo.

"capte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "comte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • capteacpte · cappte · captte · catpe · ccapte · cpate
  • comteccomte · cmote · comet · commte · comtte · cotme · ocmte

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "capte" for "comte" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "capte" is a verb and "comte" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "capte" vs "comte" - which ranks higher?
"comte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,947 in our French list, against #14,876 for "capte". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "capte" and "comte" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "capte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "comte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #386,089 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "capte" and "comte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "capte vs CPGE". 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 #386,089 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