captervsconterWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#11,009
“capter” frequency rank
#30,538
“conter” frequency rank
41547
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature capter conter
Definition Chercher à obtenir quelque chose, ou à gagner quelqu’un par voie d’insinuation. Exposer par un récit. Il se dit principalement de récits que l’on fait dans la conversation.

Where the eye mixes capter and conter

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
capter
6 ch
conter

Visual trap between capter and conter

A purely visual mix-up. capter (\kap.te\) and conter (\kɔ̃.te\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41547, 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\. conter is at rank #30,538, tagged as averb, pronounced \kɔ̃.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 41547, this pair ranks #232,307 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of capter vs conter

Shared letters: cert. Private to "capter": ap. Private to "conter": no.

"capter" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "conter" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • capteracpter · capetr · cappter · capterr · captre · captter · catper · ccapter
  • contercconter · cnoter · conetr · connter · contter · cotner · ocnter

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "capter" and "conter" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\kap.te\ versus \kɔ̃.te\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "capter" vs "conter" - which ranks higher?
"capter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,009 in our French list, against #30,538 for "conter". 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 "conter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #232,307 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "capter" and "conter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "conde vs conter". 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 #232,307 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