Which to use
“citer” and “conter” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,596
- “citer” frequency rank
- #30,538
- “conter” frequency rank
- 34134
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | citer | conter |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Assigner à comparaître devant une juridiction civile ou religieuse. | Exposer par un récit. Il se dit principalement de récits que l’on fait dans la conversation. |
Where the eye mixes citer and conter
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. citer runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against conter's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses citer with conter
A purely visual mix-up. citer (\si.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 differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34134, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
citer is recorded at frequency rank #3,596, classified as averb, pronounced \si.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 34134, this pair ranks #285,912 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of citer vs conter
Shared letters: cert. Private to "citer": i. Private to "conter": no.
"citer" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "conter" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "citer" and "conter" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "citer" or "conter" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "citer" 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 #285,912 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "citer" 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 #285,912 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.