ComtoisvscôtoieWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#32,753
“Comtois” frequency rank
#20,109
“côtoie” frequency rank
52862
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Comtois côtoie
Definition Habitant de La Comté, commune française située dans le département du Pas-de-Calais. Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de côtoyer.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set Comtois and côtoie apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

7 ch
Comtois
6 ch
côtoie

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Comtois is \kɔ̃.twa\ while côtoie is \ko.twa\. 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 52862, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Comtois is recorded at frequency rank #32,753, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔ̃.twa\. côtoie is at rank #20,109, tagged as averb, pronounced \ko.twa\.

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 52862, this pair ranks #144,747 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Comtois vs côtoie

Shared letters: ciot. Private to "Comtois": ms. Private to "côtoie": .

"Comtois" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC  ·  "côtoie" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Comtoisccomtois · cmotois · commtois · comotis · comtios · comtoiss · comtosi · comttois

Frequency comparison

Comtois#32,753
côtoie#20,109

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Comtois" and "côtoie" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Comtois" is a noun and "côtoie" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Comtois" or "côtoie"?
"côtoie" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,109 in our French list, against #32,753 for "Comtois". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering Comtois vs côtoie

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “Comtois”; for a verb, it's “côtoie”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “Comtois” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list