triesvstrigWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: tries is a noun, trig is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“tries” is a noun and “trig” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,868
“tries” frequency rank
#42,963
“trig” frequency rank
45831
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tries trig
Definition plural of try True; trusty; trustworthy; faithful.

Where the eye mixes tries and trig

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
tries
4 ch
trig

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: tries is /tɹaɪz/ while trig is /tɹɪɡ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45831, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tries is recorded at frequency rank #2,868, classified as anoun, pronounced /tɹaɪz/. trig is at rank #42,963, tagged as anadj, pronounced /tɹɪɡ/.

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 45831, this pair ranks #217,505 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tries vs trig

Shared letters: irt. Private to "tries": es. Private to "trig": g.

"tries" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC  ·  "trig" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • triesrties · treis · triess · trise · trries · ttries
  • trigrtig · tirg · trgi · trigg · trrig · ttrig

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "tries" and "trig" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tries" is a noun and "trig" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "tries" or "trig"?
"tries" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,868 in our English list, against #42,963 for "trig". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list