contractevscontratsTell them apart

Quick tell: contracte is a adjective, contrats is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#30,539
“contracte” frequency rank
#2,990
“contrats” frequency rank
33529
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature contracte contrats
Definition Où il y a contraction. Pluriel de contrat.

Where the eye mixes contracte and contrats

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

9 ch
contracte
8 ch
contrats

Look-alike desk: contracte vs contrats

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: contracte is \kɔ̃.tʁakt\ while contrats is \kɔ̃.tʁa\. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33529, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

contracte is recorded at frequency rank #30,539, classified as anadj, pronounced \kɔ̃.tʁakt\. contrats is at rank #2,990, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔ̃.tʁa\.

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 33529, this pair ranks #290,026 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of contracte vs contrats

Shared letters: acnort. Private to "contracte": e. Private to "contrats": s.

"contracte" · 9 letters · shape CVCCCVCCV  ·  "contrats" · 8 letters · shape CVCCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • contracteccontracte · cnotracte · conntracte · conrtacte · contarcte · contraccte · contracet · contractte
  • contratsccontrats · cnotrats · conntrats · conrtats · contarts · contrast · contratss · contratts

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "contracte" and "contrats" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "contracte" is an adjective and "contrats" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "contracte" or "contrats" show up more?
"contrats" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,990 in our French list, against #30,539 for "contracte". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "contracte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "contrats" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #290,026 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "contracte" and "contrats" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "contracte vs contrastés". 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 #290,026 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