compteurvsconteursTell them apart

Quick tell: compteur is a noun, conteurs is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“compteur” is a noun and “conteurs” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#7,801
“compteur” frequency rank
#40,195
“conteurs” frequency rank
47996
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature compteur conteurs
Definition Celui qui compte. Masculin pluriel de conteur.

Same sound, different letters: compteur vs conteurs

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. compteur (CVCCCVVC) and conteurs (CVCCVVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

8 ch
compteur
8 ch
conteurs

Ear matches; page differs - compteur and conteurs

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: compteur and conteurs carry the same recorded pronunciation, \kɔ̃.tœʁ\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They share most of their letters but differ in 6 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47996, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

compteur is recorded at frequency rank #7,801, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔ̃.tœʁ\. conteurs is at rank #40,195, tagged as anadj, 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 47996, this pair ranks #182,479 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of compteur vs conteurs

Shared letters: ceortu. Private to "compteur": mp. Private to "conteurs": ns.

"compteur" · 8 letters · shape CVCCCVVC  ·  "conteurs" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • compteur ← ccompteur · cmopteur · commpteur · competur · comppteur · compteru · compteurr · comptteur
  • conteurs ← cconteurs · cnoteurs · coneturs · connteurs · conterus · conteurrs · conteurss · conteusr

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "compteur" and "conteurs" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "compteur" is a noun and "conteurs" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "compteur" vs "conteurs" - which ranks higher?
"compteur" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,801 in our French list, against #40,195 for "conteurs". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "compteur" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "conteurs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #182,479 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "compteur" and "conteurs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "conteurs vs convers". 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 #182,479 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