contentéevscontenueConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#49,572
“contentée” frequency rank
#15,598
“contenue” frequency rank
65170
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature contentée contenue
Definition Participe passé féminin singulier de contenter. Féminin singulier de contenu.

Where the eye mixes contentée and contenue

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. contentée runs 9 letters (CVCCVCCVV) against contenue's 8 (CVCCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
contentée
8 ch
contenue

Visual trap between contentée and contenue

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: contentée is \kɔ̃.tɑ̃.te\ while contenue is \kɔ̃.tə.ny\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65170, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

contentée is recorded at frequency rank #49,572, classified as averb, pronounced \kɔ̃.tɑ̃.te\. contenue is at rank #15,598, tagged as anadj, pronounced \kɔ̃.tə.ny\.

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 65170, this pair ranks #73,531 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of contentée vs contenue

Shared letters: cenot. Private to "contentée": é. Private to "contenue": u.

"contentée" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVV  ·  "contenue" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • contenue ← ccontenue · cnotenue · conetnue · conntenue · conteneu · contennue · conteune · contneue

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "contentée" and "contenue" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "contentée" is a verb and "contenue" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "contentée" or "contenue"?
"contenue" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,598 in our French list, against #49,572 for "contentée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "contentée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "contenue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #73,531 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "contentée" and "contenue" 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 #73,531 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