Which to use
“contrôler” is a verb and “contrôles” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,991
- “contrôler” frequency rank
- #5,542
- “contrôles” frequency rank
- 8533
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | contrôler | contrôles |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Vérifier la conformité, la régularité ou l'exactitude. | Pluriel de contrôle. |
Where the eye mixes contrôler and contrôles
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. contrôler and contrôles follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between contrôler and contrôles
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: contrôler is \kɔ̃.tʁo.le\ while contrôles is \kɔ̃.tʁol\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - r in “contrôler” becomes s in “contrôles”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8533, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
contrôler is recorded at frequency rank #2,991, classified as averb, pronounced \kɔ̃.tʁo.le\. 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 8533, this pair ranks #419,706 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of contrôler vs contrôles
Shared letters: celnortô. Private to "contrôler": -. Private to "contrôles": s.
"contrôler" · 9 letters · shape CVCCCVCVC · "contrôles" · 9 letters · shape CVCCCVCVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "contrôler" and "contrôles" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "contrôler" vs "contrôles" - which ranks higher?
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 "contrôler" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "contrôles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #419,706 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "contrôler" and "contrôles" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "contrôles vs controller". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #419,706 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.