contentvscontentéeWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: content is a adjective, contentée is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“content” is an adjective and “contentée” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,514
“content” frequency rank
#49,572
“contentée” frequency rank
51086
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature content contentée
Definition Satisfait, heureux. Participe passé féminin singulier de contenter.

Where the eye mixes content and contentée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.

7 ch
content
9 ch
contentée

Why the eye confuses content with contentée

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: content is \kɔ̃.tɑ̃\ while contentée is \kɔ̃.tɑ̃.te\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “content” sits inside “contentée”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51086, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

content is recorded at frequency rank #1,514, classified as anadj, pronounced \kɔ̃.tɑ̃\. contentée is at rank #49,572, tagged as averb, pronounced \kɔ̃.tɑ̃.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 51086, this pair ranks #157,709 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of content vs contentée

Shared letters: cenot. Private to "content": -. Private to "contentée": é.

"content" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "contentée" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • contentccontent · cnotent · conetnt · conntent · contennt · contentt · contetn · contnet

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "content" and "contentée" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "content" is an adjective and "contentée" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "content" vs "contentée" - which ranks higher?
"content" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,514 in our French list, against #49,572 for "contentée". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "content" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "contentée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #157,709 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "content" and "contentée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "condensée vs contentée". 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 #157,709 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