Which to use
“contrôleur” and “controller” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #9,629
- “contrôleur” frequency rank
- #46,674
- “controller” frequency rank
- 56303
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | contrôleur | controller |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Celui qui est chargé de contrôler. | Régulateur. |
Where the eye mixes contrôleur and controller
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between contrôleur and controller
A purely visual mix-up. contrôleur (\kɔ̃.tʁo.lœʁ\) and controller (\kən.ˈtɹoʊ.lɚ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56303, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
contrôleur is recorded at frequency rank #9,629, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔ̃.tʁo.lœʁ\. controller is at rank #46,674, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kən.ˈtɹoʊ.lɚ\.
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 56303, this pair ranks #121,953 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of contrôleur vs controller
Shared letters: celnort. Private to "contrôleur": uô. Private to "controller": -.
"contrôleur" · 10 letters · shape CVCCCVCVVC · "controller" · 10 letters · shape CVCCCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- controller ← ccontroller · cnotroller · conntroller · conrtoller · contorller · contrloler · controlelr · controllerr
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "contrôleur" for "controller" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "contrôleur" or "controller" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "contrôleur" and "controller" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "contrôleur" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "controller" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #121,953 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "contrôleur" and "controller" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "contrôlez 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 #121,953 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.