comtésvscoterWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: comtés is a noun, coter is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“comtés” is a noun and “coter” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#18,441
“comtés” frequency rank
#37,252
“coter” frequency rank
55693
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature comtés coter
Definition Pluriel de comté. Marquer suivant l’ordre des lettres ou des nombres, numéroter.

Where the eye mixes comtés and coter

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

6 ch
comtés
5 ch
coter

Visual trap between comtés and coter

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: comtés is \kɔ̃.te\ while coter is \kɔ.te\. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55693, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

comtés is recorded at frequency rank #18,441, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔ̃.te\. coter is at rank #37,252, tagged as averb, pronounced \kɔ.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 55693, this pair ranks #125,816 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of comtés vs coter

Shared letters: cot. Private to "comtés": msé. Private to "coter": er.

"comtés" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "coter" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • coterccoter · coetr · coterr · cotter · ctoer · octer

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "comtés" for "coter" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "comtés" is a noun and "coter" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "comtés" or "coter"?
"comtés" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,441 in our French list, against #37,252 for "coter". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "comtés" and "coter" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "comtés" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "coter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #125,816 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "comtés" and "coter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "citera vs coter". 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 #125,816 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