Which to use
“control” and “contrôler” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #13,145
- “control” frequency rank
- #2,991
- “contrôler” frequency rank
- 16136
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | control | contrôler |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Contrôler (diriger, dominer d’une façon précise). | Vérifier la conformité, la régularité ou l'exactitude. |
Where the eye mixes control and contrôler
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses control with contrôler
A purely visual mix-up. control (\kən.ˈtɹoʊl\) and contrôler (\kɔ̃.tʁo.le\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16136, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
control is recorded at frequency rank #13,145, classified as averb, pronounced \kən.ˈtɹoʊl\. contrôler is at rank #2,991, tagged as averb, pronounced \kɔ̃.tʁo.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 16136, this pair ranks #389,214 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of control vs contrôler
Shared letters: clnort. Private to "control": -. Private to "contrôler": eô.
"control" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC · "contrôler" · 9 letters · shape CVCCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- control ← ccontrol · cnotrol · conntrol · conrtol · contorl · contrlo · controll · contrrol
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "control" and "contrôler" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "control" or "contrôler" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "control" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "contrôler" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #389,214 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "control" and "contrôler" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "centro vs control". 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 #389,214 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.