conter

Conter means to tell or narrate a story, closely tied to the noun conte (fairy tale, short story) — think of Charles Perrault's Contes. It's more literary and old-fashioned than raconter, the everyday verb for "to tell" a story or an anecdote.

• La grand-mère aimait conter des histoires aux enfants. — The grandmother loved telling stories to the children.
• On conte que ce château est hanté. — Legend has it that this castle is haunted.
• Il nous a conté ses aventures en Afrique. — He recounted his adventures in Africa to us.

In everyday modern French, raconter is what people actually use for "to tell" (raconte-moi ta journée) — conter now sounds deliberately old-fashioned or literary, appropriate for a storyteller's register but out of place in casual conversation.

Often confused with raconter.