Which to use
“comptais” is a verb and “comptoirs” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #17,385
- “comptais” frequency rank
- #24,160
- “comptoirs” frequency rank
- 41545
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | comptais | comptoirs |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif imparfait de compter. | Pluriel de comptoir. |
Where the eye mixes comptais and comptoirs
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. comptais runs 8 letters (CVCCCVVC) against comptoirs's 9 (CVCCCVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: comptais vs comptoirs
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: comptais is \kɔ̃.tɛ\ while comptoirs is \kɔ̃.twaʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41545, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
comptais is recorded at frequency rank #17,385, classified as averb, pronounced \kɔ̃.tɛ\. comptoirs is at rank #24,160, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔ̃.twaʁ\.
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 41545, this pair ranks #232,319 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of comptais vs comptoirs
Shared letters: cimopst. Private to "comptais": a. Private to "comptoirs": r.
"comptais" · 8 letters · shape CVCCCVVC · "comptoirs" · 9 letters · shape CVCCCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "comptais" for "comptoirs" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "comptais" or "comptoirs" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "comptais" and "comptoirs" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "comptais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "comptoirs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #232,319 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "comptais" and "comptoirs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "comptais vs comptées". 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 #232,319 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.