Which to use
“raconta” and “racontais” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #41,991
- “raconta” frequency rank
- #42,557
- “racontais” frequency rank
- 84548
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | raconta | racontais |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de raconter. | Première personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de raconter. |
Where the eye mixes raconta and racontais
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. raconta runs 7 letters (CVCVCCV) against racontais's 9 (CVCVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses raconta with racontais
A purely visual mix-up. raconta (\ʁa.kɔ̃.ta\) and racontais (\ʁa.kɔ̃.tɛ\) 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 extra letter(s) - “raconta” sits inside “racontais”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 84548, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
raconta is recorded at frequency rank #41,991, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁa.kɔ̃.ta\. racontais is at rank #42,557, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁa.kɔ̃.tɛ\.
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 84548, this pair ranks #12,793 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of raconta vs racontais
Shared letters: acnort. Private to "raconta": -. Private to "racontais": is.
"raconta" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV · "racontais" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "raconta" and "racontais" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "raconta" or "racontais" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "raconta" and "racontais" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "raconta" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "racontais" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #12,793 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "raconta" and "racontais" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "racontais vs racontés". 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 #12,793 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.