captervscarterConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#11,009
“capter” frequency rank
#8,077
“carter” frequency rank
19086
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature capter carter
Definition Chercher à obtenir quelque chose, ou à gagner quelqu’un par voie d’insinuation. Enveloppe de cuir, tôle, mica, aluminium, etc., servant à protéger un engrenage ou un moteur d’automobile.

Where the eye mixes capter and carter

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
capter
6 ch
carter

Why the eye confuses capter with carter

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: capter is \kap.te\ while carter is \kaʁ.tɛʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - p in “capter” becomes r in “carter”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19086, 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\. carter is at rank #8,077, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kaʁ.tɛʁ\.

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 19086, this pair ranks #375,087 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of capter vs carter

Shared letters: acert. Private to "capter": p. Private to "carter": -.

"capter" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "carter" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • capteracpter · capetr · cappter · capterr · captre · captter · catper · ccapter
  • carteracrter · caretr · carrter · carterr · cartre · cartter · catrer · ccarter

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "capter" for "carter" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "capter" is a verb and "carter" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "capter" or "carter" show up more?
"carter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,077 in our French list, against #11,009 for "capter". 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 "capter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "carter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #375,087 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "capter" and "carter" 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 #375,087 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