continuevscontinuitéWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#867
“continue” frequency rank
#5,961
“continuité” frequency rank
6828
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature continue continuité
Definition Dans une filature appareil destiné à diviser la nappe en fils. Liaison non interrompue des parties d’un tout.

Where the eye mixes continue and continuité

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

8 ch
continue
10 ch
continuité

Why the eye confuses continue with continuité

A purely visual mix-up. continue (\kɔ̃.ti.ny\) and continuité (\kɔ̃.ti.nɥi.te\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6828, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

continue is recorded at frequency rank #867, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔ̃.ti.ny\. continuité is at rank #5,961, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔ̃.ti.nɥi.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 6828, this pair ranks #425,103 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of continue vs continuité

Shared letters: cinotu. Private to "continue": e. Private to "continuité": é.

"continue" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVV  ·  "continuité" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • continueccontinue · cnotinue · conitnue · conntinue · contineu · continnue · contiune · contniue

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "continue" for "continuité" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\kɔ̃.ti.ny\ versus \kɔ̃.ti.nɥi.te\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "continue" or "continuité"?
"continue" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #867 in our French list, against #5,961 for "continuité". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "continue" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "continuité" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #425,103 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "continue" and "continuité" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "continue vs continuel". 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 #425,103 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