Which to use
“tried” is an adjective and “tries” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #724
- “tried” frequency rank
- #2,868
- “tries” frequency rank
- 3592
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tried | tries |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Tested, hence, proven to be firm or reliable. | plural of try |
Where the eye mixes tried and tries
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: tried is /tɹaɪd/ while tries is /tɹaɪz/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - d in “tried” becomes s in “tries”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3592, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
tried is recorded at frequency rank #724, classified as anadj, pronounced /tɹaɪd/. tries is at rank #2,868, tagged as anoun, pronounced /tɹaɪz/.
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 3592, this pair ranks #521,660 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of tried vs tries
Shared letters: eirt. Private to "tried": d. Private to "tries": s.
"tried" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC · "tries" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC