contiennevscontinueTell them apart

Quick tell: contienne is a verb, continue is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“contienne” is a verb and “continue” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#44,951
“contienne” frequency rank
#867
“continue” frequency rank
45818
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature contienne continue
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent du subjonctif de contenir. Dans une filature appareil destiné à diviser la nappe en fils.

Where the eye mixes contienne and continue

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

9 ch
contienne
8 ch
continue

Look-alike desk: contienne vs continue

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: contienne is \kɔ̃.tjɛn\ while continue is \kɔ̃.ti.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 noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45818, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

contienne is recorded at frequency rank #44,951, classified as averb, pronounced \kɔ̃.tjɛn\. continue is at rank #867, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔ̃.ti.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 45818, this pair ranks #199,790 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of contienne vs continue

Shared letters: ceinot. Private to "contienne": -. Private to "continue": u.

"contienne" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVVCCV  ·  "continue" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • contienneccontienne · cnotienne · conitenne · conntienne · conteinne · contiene · contienen · continene
  • continueccontinue · cnotinue · conitnue · conntinue · contineu · continnue · contiune · contniue

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "contienne" and "continue" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "contienne" is a verb and "continue" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "contienne" or "continue" show up more?
"continue" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #867 in our French list, against #44,951 for "contienne". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "contienne" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "continue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #199,790 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "contienne" and "continue" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "contienne vs convienne". 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 #199,790 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