conter vs contre, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“conter” is a verb and “contre” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#4,457
“conter” frequency rank: #45,771
“contre” frequency rank: 50228
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	conter	contre
Definition	encerrar	contra, encostado em, perto de, próximo a:

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set conter and contre apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch

conter

6 ch

contre

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: conter is /kõ.ˈteɾ/ while contre is /kɔ̃tʁ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ only by swapping two adjacent letters (er ↔ re) - a transposition the eye reads straight past, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs preposition), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50228, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

conter is recorded at frequency rank #4,457, classified as averb, pronounced /kõ.ˈteɾ/. contre is at rank #45,771, tagged as aprep, pronounced /kɔ̃tʁ/.

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 50228, this pair ranks #14,749 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of conter vs contre

Shared letters: cenort. Private to "conter": -. Private to "contre": -.

"conter" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "contre" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

conter ← cconter · cnoter · conetr · connter · conterr · contter · cotner · ocnter
contre ← ccontre · cnotre · conntre · conrte · contrre · conttre · cotnre · ocntre

Frequency comparison

conter#4,457

contre#45,771

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "conter" and "contre" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "conter" is a verb and "contre" a preposition, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "conter" or "contre"?

"conter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,457 in our Portuguese list, against #45,771 for "contre". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering conter vs contre

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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