FrançoisvstapesTell them apart

Quick tell: François is a name, tapes is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“François” is a name and “tapes” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#11,052
“François” frequency rank
#41,496
“tapes” frequency rank
52548
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature François tapes
Definition männlicher Vorname 2. Person Singular Präsens Konjunktiv des Verbs tapar

Letter map: François vs tapes

Shared letters muted; letters that set François and tapes apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. François runs 8 letters (CCVCCVVC) against tapes's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
François
5 ch
tapes

Role in the sentence - François and tapes

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: François is aname and tapesaverb. On the page they differ by 3 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52548, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

François is recorded at frequency rank #11,052, classified as aname, pronounced […]. tapes is at rank #41,496, tagged as averb, pronounced […].

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 52548, this pair ranks #1,092,475 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of François vs tapes

Shared letters: as. Private to "François": finorç. Private to "tapes": ept.

"François" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCVVC  ·  "tapes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tapesatpes · taeps · tapess · tappes · tapse · tpaes · ttapes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "François" for "tapes" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "François" is a name and "tapes" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "François" or "tapes"?
"François" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,052 in our German list, against #41,496 for "tapes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "François" and "tapes".

  • Full dictionary entry for "François" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tapes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,092,475 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "François" and "tapes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs tapes". 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 #1,092,475 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list