Which to use
“contamine” and “contaminées” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #41,191
- “contamine” frequency rank
- #40,690
- “contaminées” frequency rank
- 81881
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | contamine | contaminées |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de contaminer. | Participe passé féminin pluriel de contaminer. |
Where the eye mixes contamine and contaminées
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. contamine runs 9 letters (CVCCVCVCV) against contaminées's 11 (CVCCVCVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between contamine and contaminées
A purely visual mix-up. contamine (\kɔ̃.ta.min\) and contaminées (\kɔ̃.ta.mi.ne\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 81881, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
contamine is recorded at frequency rank #41,191, classified as averb, pronounced \kɔ̃.ta.min\. contaminées is at rank #40,690, tagged as averb, pronounced \kɔ̃.ta.mi.ne\.
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 81881, this pair ranks #17,868 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of contamine vs contaminées
Shared letters: aceimnot. Private to "contamine": -. Private to "contaminées": sé.
"contamine" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVCV · "contaminées" · 11 letters · shape CVCCVCVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- contamine ← ccontamine · cnotamine · conatmine · conntamine · contaimne · contamien · contaminne · contammine
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "contamine" for "contaminées" ever safe?
Frequency check: "contamine" vs "contaminées" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "contamine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "contaminées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #17,868 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "contamine" and "contaminées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "containers vs contaminées". 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 #17,868 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.