coauteurvsconteurWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#38,710
“coauteur” frequency rank
#23,152
“conteur” frequency rank
61862
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature coauteur conteur
Definition Auteur d’un ouvrage écrit en collaboration. Celui qui écrit ou raconte des contes.

Where the eye mixes coauteur and conteur

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. coauteur runs 8 letters (CVVVCVVC) against conteur's 7 (CVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
coauteur
7 ch
conteur

Look-alike desk: coauteur vs conteur

A purely visual mix-up. coauteur (\kɔ.o.tœʁ\) and conteur (\kɔ̃.tœʁ\) 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 61862, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

coauteur is recorded at frequency rank #38,710, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔ.o.tœʁ\. conteur is at rank #23,152, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔ̃.tœʁ\.

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 61862, this pair ranks #90,040 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of coauteur vs conteur

Shared letters: ceortu. Private to "coauteur": a. Private to "conteur": n.

"coauteur" · 8 letters · shape CVVVCVVC  ·  "conteur" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • coauteur ← caouteur · ccoauteur · coatueur · coauetur · coauteru · coauteurr · coautteur · coautuer
  • conteur ← cconteur · cnoteur · conetur · connteur · conteru · conteurr · contteur · contuer

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "coauteur" and "conteur" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\kɔ.o.tœʁ\ versus \kɔ̃.tœʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "coauteur" vs "conteur" - which ranks higher?
"conteur" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,152 in our French list, against #38,710 for "coauteur". 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 "coauteur" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "conteur" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #90,040 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "coauteur" and "conteur" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coadjuteur vs coauteur". 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 #90,040 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