continuevscontinusWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: continue is a noun, continus is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#867
“continue” frequency rank
#30,110
“continus” frequency rank
30977
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature continue continus
Definition Dans une filature appareil destiné à diviser la nappe en fils. Masculin pluriel de continu.

Same sound, different letters: continue vs continus

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters.

8 ch
continue
8 ch
continus

Same sound, different spelling - continue / continus

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: continue and continus carry the same recorded pronunciation, \kɔ̃.ti.ny\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by a single letter - e in “continue” becomes s in “continus”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30977, 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\. continus is at rank #30,110, tagged as anadj, 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 30977, this pair ranks #306,793 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of continue vs continus

Shared letters: cinotu. Private to "continue": e. Private to "continus": s.

"continue" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVV  ·  "continus" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • continueccontinue · cnotinue · conitnue · conntinue · contineu · continnue · contiune · contniue
  • continusccontinus · cnotinus · conitnus · conntinus · continnus · continsu · continuss · contiuns

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "continue" and "continus" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "continue" is a noun and "continus" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "continue" vs "continus" - which ranks higher?
"continue" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #867 in our French list, against #30,110 for "continus". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

"continue" and "continus" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "continue" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "continus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #306,793 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "continue" and "continus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "continuel vs continus". 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 #306,793 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