contesvsCteTell them apart

Which to use

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

#6,803
“contes” frequency rank
#42,264
“Cte” frequency rank
49067
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature contes Cte
Definition Pluriel de conte. Comte.

Same sound, different letters: contes vs Cte

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 3 letters.

6 ch
contes
3 ch
Cte

Homophone desk: contes vs Cte

This is the hard kind. contes and Cte are pronounced identically (\kɔ̃t\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 3 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49067, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

contes is recorded at frequency rank #6,803, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔ̃t\. Cte is at rank #42,264, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔ̃t\.

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 49067, this pair ranks #173,735 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of contes vs Cte

Shared letters: cet. Private to "contes": nos. Private to "Cte": -.

"contes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "Cte" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • contesccontes · cnotes · conets · conntes · contess · contse · conttes · cotnes

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "contes" and "Cte" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\kɔ̃t\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "contes" vs "Cte" - which ranks higher?
"contes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,803 in our French list, against #42,264 for "Cte". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've separated the homophone pair "contes" / "Cte". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "contes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Cte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #173,735 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "contes" and "Cte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "CCE vs Cte". 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 #173,735 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