captervscapteursWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: capter is a verb, capteurs is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“capter” is a verb and “capteurs” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#11,009
“capter” frequency rank
#11,534
“capteurs” frequency rank
22543
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature capter capteurs
Definition Chercher à obtenir quelque chose, ou à gagner quelqu’un par voie d’insinuation. Masculin pluriel de capteur.

Where the eye mixes capter and capteurs

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. capter runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against capteurs's 8 (CVCCVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
capter
8 ch
capteurs

Visual trap between capter and capteurs

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: capter is \kap.te\ while capteurs is \kap.tœʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22543, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

capter is recorded at frequency rank #11,009, classified as averb, pronounced \kap.te\. capteurs is at rank #11,534, tagged as anadj, pronounced \kap.tœʁ\.

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 22543, this pair ranks #357,418 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of capter vs capteurs

Shared letters: aceprt. Private to "capter": -. Private to "capteurs": su.

"capter" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "capteurs" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • capter ← acpter · capetr · cappter · capterr · captre · captter · catper · ccapter
  • capteurs ← acpteurs · capeturs · cappteurs · capterus · capteurrs · capteurss · capteusr · captteurs

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "capter" and "capteurs" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "capter" is a verb and "capteurs" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "capter" vs "capteurs" - which ranks higher?
"capter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,009 in our French list, against #11,534 for "capteurs". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "capter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "capteurs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #357,418 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "capter" and "capteurs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "capter vs carrer". 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 #357,418 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