contractéevscontractéesConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#24,164
“contractée” frequency rank
#47,250
“contractées” frequency rank
71414
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature contractée contractées
Definition Féminin singulier de contracté. Féminin pluriel de contracté.

Same sound, different letters: contractée vs contractées

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 10 letters. contractée runs 10 letters (CVCCCVCCVV) against contractées's 11 (CVCCCVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

10 ch
contractée
11 ch
contractées

Ear matches; page differs - contractée and contractées

This is the hard kind. contractée and contractées are pronounced identically (\kɔ̃.tʁak.te\) and both work as anadjective. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “contractée” sits inside “contractées”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71414, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

contractée is recorded at frequency rank #24,164, classified as anadj, pronounced \kɔ̃.tʁak.te\. contractées is at rank #47,250, tagged as anadj, pronounced \kɔ̃.tʁak.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 71414, this pair ranks #47,631 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of contractée vs contractées

Shared letters: acenorté. Private to "contractée": -. Private to "contractées": s.

"contractée" · 10 letters · shape CVCCCVCCVV  ·  "contractées" · 11 letters · shape CVCCCVCCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "contractée" and "contractées" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\kɔ̃.tʁak.te\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "contractée" vs "contractées" - which ranks higher?
"contractée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,164 in our French list, against #47,250 for "contractées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "contractée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "contractées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #47,631 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "contractée" and "contractées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "contractées vs contrastés". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #47,631 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