contrôlentvscontrôlesWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: contrôlent is a verb, contrôles is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“contrôlent” is a verb and “contrôles” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#14,233
“contrôlent” frequency rank
#5,542
“contrôles” frequency rank
19775
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature contrôlent contrôles
Definition Troisième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de contrôler. Pluriel de contrôle.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set contrôlent and contrôles apart are highlighted. They share 8 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

10 ch
contrôlent
9 ch
contrôles

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: contrôlent and contrôles carry the same recorded pronunciation, \kɔ̃.tʁol\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is averb, the other anoun, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19775, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

contrôlent is recorded at frequency rank #14,233, classified as averb, pronounced \kɔ̃.tʁol\. contrôles is at rank #5,542, tagged as anoun, 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 19775, this pair ranks #371,620 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of contrôlent vs contrôles

Shared letters: celnortô. Private to "contrôlent": -. Private to "contrôles": s.

"contrôlent" · 10 letters · shape CVCCCVCVCC  ·  "contrôles" · 9 letters · shape CVCCCVCVC

Frequency comparison

contrôlent#14,233
contrôles#5,542

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "contrôlent" and "contrôles" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "contrôlent" is a verb and "contrôles" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "contrôlent" or "contrôles"?
"contrôles" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,542 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.

Remembering contrôlent vs contrôles

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “contrôlent”; for a noun, it's “contrôles”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “contrôlent” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list