Which to use
“contrainte” is a noun and “contraints” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #5,332
- “contrainte” frequency rank
- #12,750
- “contraints” frequency rank
- 18082
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | contrainte | contraints |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Violence qu’on exerce contre quelqu’un, pour l’obliger à faire quelque chose malgré lui ou pour l’empêcher de faire ce qu’il voudrait. | Masculin pluriel de contraint. |
Where the eye mixes contrainte and contraints
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses contrainte with contraints
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: contrainte is \kɔ̃.tʁɛ̃t\ while contraints is \kɔ̃.tʁɛ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - e in “contrainte” becomes s in “contraints”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18082, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
contrainte is recorded at frequency rank #5,332, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔ̃.tʁɛ̃t\. contraints is at rank #12,750, tagged as anadj, pronounced \kɔ̃.tʁɛ̃\.
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 18082, this pair ranks #380,091 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of contrainte vs contraints
Shared letters: acinort. Private to "contrainte": e. Private to "contraints": s.
"contrainte" · 10 letters · shape CVCCCVVCCV · "contraints" · 10 letters · shape CVCCCVVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- contrainte ← ccontrainte · cnotrainte · conntrainte · conrtainte · contarinte · contrainet · contrainnte · contraintte
- contraints ← ccontraints · cnotraints · conntraints · conrtaints · contarints · contrainnts · contrainst · contraintss
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "contrainte" and "contraints" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "contrainte" or "contraints" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "contrainte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "contraints" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #380,091 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "contrainte" and "contraints" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "contrainte vs contrariété". 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 #380,091 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.