contactéevscontactésWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#24,920
“contactée” frequency rank
#29,712
“contactés” frequency rank
54632
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature contactée contactés
Definition Participe passé féminin singulier de contacter. Participe passé masculin pluriel de contacter.

Same sound, different letters: contactée vs contactés

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters.

9 ch
contactée
9 ch
contactés

Same sound, different spelling - contactée / contactés

This is the hard kind. contactée and contactés are pronounced identically (\kɔ̃.tak.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 a single letter - e in “contactée” becomes s in “contactés”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54632, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

contactée is recorded at frequency rank #24,920, classified as averb, pronounced \kɔ̃.tak.te\. contactés is at rank #29,712, tagged as averb, pronounced \kɔ̃.tak.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 54632, this pair ranks #132,705 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of contactée vs contactés

Shared letters: acnoté. Private to "contactée": e. Private to "contactés": s.

"contactée" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVV  ·  "contactés" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "contactée" and "contactés" be used interchangeably?
No. They are pronounced the same (\kɔ̃.tak.te\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
In ordinary French text, does "contactée" or "contactés" show up more?
"contactée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,920 in our French list, against #29,712 for "contactés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "contactée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "contactés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #132,705 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "contactée" and "contactés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "contactés vs contrastés". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #132,705 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