Which to use
“contre” is a preposition and “controle” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #109
- “contre” frequency rank
- #15,340
- “controle” frequency rank
- 15449
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | contre | controle |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | En opposition à ; dans un choc avec ; à l’encontre de. | Première personne du singulier du présent du subjonctif de controlar. |
Where the eye mixes contre and controle
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. contre runs 6 letters (CVCCCV) against controle's 8 (CVCCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between contre and controle
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: contre is \kɔ̃tʁ\ while controle is \konˈtɾo.le\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (preposition vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15449, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
contre is recorded at frequency rank #109, classified as aprep, pronounced \kɔ̃tʁ\. controle is at rank #15,340, tagged as averb, pronounced \konˈtɾo.le\.
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 15449, this pair ranks #392,318 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of contre vs controle
Shared letters: cenort. Private to "contre": -. Private to "controle": l.
"contre" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV · "controle" · 8 letters · shape CVCCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "contre" and "controle" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "contre" or "controle" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "contre" and "controle" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "contre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "controle" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #392,318 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "contre" and "controle" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "controle vs controller". 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 #392,318 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.