contentavscontentsWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: contenta is a verb, contents is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#44,950
“contenta” frequency rank
#8,366
“contents” frequency rank
53316
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature contenta contents
Definition Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de contenter. Masculin pluriel de content.

Where the eye mixes contenta and contents

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

8 ch
contenta
8 ch
contents

Look-alike desk: contenta vs contents

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: contenta is \kɔ̃.tɑ̃.ta\ while contents is \kɔ̃.tɑ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - a in “contenta” becomes s in “contents”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53316, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

contenta is recorded at frequency rank #44,950, classified as averb, pronounced \kɔ̃.tɑ̃.ta\. contents is at rank #8,366, tagged as anadj, pronounced \kɔ̃.tɑ̃\.

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 53316, this pair ranks #141,561 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of contenta vs contents

Shared letters: cenot. Private to "contenta": a. Private to "contents": s.

"contenta" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV  ·  "contents" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • contentaccontenta · cnotenta · conetnta · conntenta · contenat · contennta · contentta · contetna
  • contentsccontents · cnotents · conetnts · conntents · contennts · contenst · contentss · contentts

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "contenta" for "contents" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "contenta" is a verb and "contents" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "contenta" or "contents" show up more?
"contents" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,366 in our French list, against #44,950 for "contenta". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "contenta" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "contents" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #141,561 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "contenta" and "contents" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "contenta 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 #141,561 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