captervscoûterWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#11,009
“capter” frequency rank
#8,089
“coûter” frequency rank
19098
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature capter coûter
Definition Chercher à obtenir quelque chose, ou à gagner quelqu’un par voie d’insinuation. Valoir tel ou tel prix d’achat.

Where the eye mixes capter and coûter

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

6 ch
capter
6 ch
coûter

Visual trap between capter and coûter

A purely visual mix-up. capter (\kap.te\) and coûter (\ku.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 19098, 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\. coûter is at rank #8,089, tagged as averb, pronounced \ku.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 19098, this pair ranks #375,021 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of capter vs coûter

Shared letters: cert. Private to "capter": ap. Private to "coûter": .

"capter" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "coûter" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • capteracpter · capetr · cappter · capterr · captre · captter · catper · ccapter

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "capter" and "coûter" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\kap.te\ versus \ku.te\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "capter" or "coûter"?
"coûter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,089 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.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "capter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "coûter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #375,021 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "capter" and "coûter" 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 #375,021 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