Which to use
“cont” is a noun and “conter” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #44,949
- “cont” frequency rank
- #30,538
- “conter” frequency rank
- 75487
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cont | conter |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Compte. | Exposer par un récit. Il se dit principalement de récits que l’on fait dans la conversation. |
Where the eye mixes cont and conter
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. cont runs 4 letters (CVCC) against conter's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: cont vs conter
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cont is \ˈkont\ while conter is \kɔ̃.te\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “cont” sits inside “conter”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 75487, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cont is recorded at frequency rank #44,949, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈkont\. 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 75487, this pair ranks #33,948 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of cont vs conter
Shared letters: cnot. Private to "cont": -. Private to "conter": er.
"cont" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "conter" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "cont" and "conter" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "cont" or "conter" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "cont" 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 #33,948 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cont" and "conter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "conde vs cont". 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 #33,948 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.