racontaisvsracontésWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#42,557
“racontais” frequency rank
#47,547
“racontés” frequency rank
90104
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature racontais racontés
Definition Première personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de raconter. Participe passé masculin pluriel de raconter.

Where the eye mixes racontais and racontés

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. racontais runs 9 letters (CVCVCCVVC) against racontés's 8 (CVCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
racontais
8 ch
racontés

Visual trap between racontais and racontés

A purely visual mix-up. racontais (\ʁa.kɔ̃.tɛ\) and racontés (\ʁa.kɔ̃.te\) 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 90104, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

racontais is recorded at frequency rank #42,557, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁa.kɔ̃.tɛ\. racontés is at rank #47,547, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁa.kɔ̃.te\.

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 90104, this pair ranks #5,151 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of racontais vs racontés

Shared letters: acnorst. Private to "racontais": i. Private to "racontés": é.

"racontais" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCVVC  ·  "racontés" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • racontaisarcontais · raccontais · racnotais · raconatis · raconntais · racontaiss · racontasi · racontias

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "racontais" for "racontés" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ʁa.kɔ̃.tɛ\ versus \ʁa.kɔ̃.te\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "racontais" vs "racontés" - which ranks higher?
"racontais" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #42,557 in our French list, against #47,547 for "racontés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "racontais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "racontés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #5,151 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "racontais" and "racontés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "raconta 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 #5,151 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