contrôléevscontrôlentWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#9,807
“contrôlée” frequency rank
#14,233
“contrôlent” frequency rank
24040
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature contrôlée contrôlent
Definition Participe passé féminin singulier de contrôler. Troisième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de contrôler.

Where the eye mixes contrôlée and contrôlent

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. contrôlée runs 9 letters (CVCCCVCVV) against contrôlent's 10 (CVCCCVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
contrôlée
10 ch
contrôlent

Look-alike desk: contrôlée vs contrôlent

A purely visual mix-up. contrôlée (\kɔ̃.tʁo.le\) and contrôlent (\kɔ̃.tʁol\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24040, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

contrôlée is recorded at frequency rank #9,807, classified as averb, pronounced \kɔ̃.tʁo.le\. contrôlent is at rank #14,233, tagged as averb, pronounced \kɔ̃.tʁol\.

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 24040, this pair ranks #348,982 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of contrôlée vs contrôlent

Shared letters: celnortô. Private to "contrôlée": é. Private to "contrôlent": -.

"contrôlée" · 9 letters · shape CVCCCVCVV  ·  "contrôlent" · 10 letters · shape CVCCCVCVCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "contrôlée" and "contrôlent" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\kɔ̃.tʁo.le\ versus \kɔ̃.tʁol\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "contrôlée" or "contrôlent"?
"contrôlée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,807 in our French list, against #14,233 for "contrôlent". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "contrôlée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "contrôlent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #348,982 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "contrôlée" and "contrôlent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "contrôlaient vs contrôlent". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #348,982 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