Which to use
“contraire” is a noun and “contrarie” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #868
- “contraire” frequency rank
- #34,953
- “contrarie” frequency rank
- 35821
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | contraire | contrarie |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Concept inverse, logiquement opposé. | Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de contrarier. |
Where the eye mixes contraire and contrarie
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. contraire (CVCCCVVCV) and contrarie (CVCCCVCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses contraire with contrarie
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: contraire is \kɔ̃.tʁɛʁ\ while contrarie is \kɔ̃.tʁa.ʁi\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ only by swapping two adjacent letters (ir ↔ ri) - a transposition the eye reads straight past, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35821, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
contraire is recorded at frequency rank #868, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔ̃.tʁɛʁ\. contrarie is at rank #34,953, tagged as averb, pronounced \kɔ̃.tʁa.ʁi\.
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 35821, this pair ranks #273,989 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of contraire vs contrarie
Shared letters: aceinort. Private to "contraire": -. Private to "contrarie": -.
"contraire" · 9 letters · shape CVCCCVVCV · "contrarie" · 9 letters · shape CVCCCVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "contraire" and "contrarie" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "contraire" vs "contrarie" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "contraire" and "contrarie" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "contraire" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "contrarie" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #273,989 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "contraire" and "contrarie" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "contrarie 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 #273,989 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.