comptezvsconterWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#10,472
“comptez” frequency rank
#30,538
“conter” frequency rank
41010
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature comptez conter
Definition Deuxième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de compter. Exposer par un récit. Il se dit principalement de récits que l’on fait dans la conversation.

Same sound, different letters: comptez vs conter

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters.

7 ch
comptez
6 ch
conter

Same sound, different spelling - comptez / conter

This is the hard kind. comptez and conter are pronounced identically (\kɔ̃.te\) and both work as averb. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41010, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

comptez is recorded at frequency rank #10,472, classified as averb, pronounced \kɔ̃.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 41010, this pair ranks #236,234 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of comptez vs conter

Shared letters: ceot. Private to "comptez": mpz. Private to "conter": nr.

"comptez" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC  ·  "conter" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • comptezccomptez · cmoptez · commptez · competz · compptez · comptezz · compttez · comptze
  • contercconter · cnoter · conetr · connter · contter · cotner · ocnter

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "comptez" and "conter" be used interchangeably?
No. They are pronounced the same (\kɔ̃.te\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "comptez" vs "conter" - which ranks higher?
"comptez" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,472 in our French list, against #30,538 for "conter". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've separated the homophone pair "comptez" / "conter". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "comptez" 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 #236,234 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "comptez" 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 #236,234 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