contevscrotteConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#4,741
“conte” frequency rank
#22,221
“crotte” frequency rank
26962
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature conte crotte
Definition Récit d’aventures imaginaires, soit qu’elles aient de la vraisemblance ou que s’y mêle du merveilleux, du féerique. Fiente, en forme de boulettes, de certains animaux.

Where the eye mixes conte and crotte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
conte
6 ch
crotte

Why the eye confuses conte with crotte

A purely visual mix-up. conte (\kɔ̃t\) and crotte (\kʁɔt\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26962, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

conte is recorded at frequency rank #4,741, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔ̃t\. crotte is at rank #22,221, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kʁɔt\.

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 26962, this pair ranks #331,815 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of conte vs crotte

Shared letters: ceot. Private to "conte": n. Private to "crotte": r.

"conte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "crotte" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • contecconte · cnote · conet · connte · contte · cotne · ocnte
  • crotteccrotte · cortte · crote · crotet · crrotte · crtote · rcotte

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "conte" for "crotte" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\kɔ̃t\ versus \kʁɔt\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "conte" or "crotte"?
"conte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,741 in our French list, against #22,221 for "crotte". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "conte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "crotte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #331,815 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "conte" and "crotte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cotta vs crotte". 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 #331,815 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