Which to use
“citer” and “coûter” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,596
- “citer” frequency rank
- #8,089
- “coûter” frequency rank
- 11685
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | citer | coûter |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Assigner à comparaître devant une juridiction civile ou religieuse. | Valoir tel ou tel prix d’achat. |
Where the eye mixes citer and coûter
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses citer with coûter
A purely visual mix-up. citer (\si.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 differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11685, 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\. 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 11685, this pair ranks #408,225 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of citer vs coûter
Shared letters: cert. Private to "citer": i. Private to "coûter": oû.
"citer" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "coûter" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- citer ← cciter · cietr · citerr · citre · citter · ctier · icter
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "citer" and "coûter" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "citer" or "coûter" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "citer" 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 #408,225 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "citer" and "coûter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "courber vs coûter". 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 #408,225 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.