tiens

/\tjɛ̃\/ intj

Letters

5 characters

Frequency Rank

#1,126

in French word usage

Misspellings

7

tracked variants

Confusables

20

similar word pairs

tiens is anFrenchintj. It means: Marque l’étonnement, la surprise Pronounced \tjɛ̃\. It ranks #1,126 in French word frequency. Often confused with tin and TNS.

Key facts for tiens
PropertyValue
Headwordtiens
LanguageFrench
Part of speechIntj
IPA\tjɛ̃\
Letters5
Frequency rank#1,126
Misspellings tracked7
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of tiens in French word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for tiens is 5 letters long, classified as anintj, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \tjɛ̃\. Corpus data places it at rank #1,126 in overall French word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 7 documented wrong-spelling variants for tiens, with forms such as "itens", "teins", and "tienns". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "tin", "TNS", "très", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct French form is tiens, spelled T-I-E-N-S, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Marque l’étonnement, la surprise
  2. 2
    Marque un sentiment de doute, ou de suspicion, parfois mêlé d’étonnement ou de surprise (voir sens 1).
  3. 3
    Indique qu’un coup physique est porté, que quelqu’un donne un coup, ou commet un acte violent.
  4. 4
    Indique qu’un coup physique est porté, que quelqu’un donne un coup, ou commet un acte violent.
  5. 5
    A une simple fonction phatique. Se rapproche dans ce cas de l'expression écoute servant à marquer de l’importance, du nouveau.

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: itens,teins,tienns,tienss,tiesn,tines,ttiens

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for tiens

Misspelling Variants of "tiens"

itens5teins5tienns6tienss6tiesn5tines5ttiens6
Misspelling Variants of "tiens"

Frequency rank: #1,126 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "tiens"?
"tiens" is spelled T-I-E-N-S. The IPA pronunciation is \tjɛ̃\.
What does "tiens" mean?
As an intj, "tiens" means: Marque l’étonnement, la surprise
What words are commonly confused with "tiens"?
"tiens" is commonly confused with "tin", "TNS", "très". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "tiens"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "tiens" is \tjɛ̃\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "tiens" come from?
"tiens" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Nearby French words

Other entries that begin with the letter T in our French index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.