tablevstoileWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“table” and “toile” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#1,013
“table” frequency rank
#3,299
“toile” frequency rank
4312
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature table toile
Definition Surface plane de bois, de pierre, de marbre, etc., posée sur un ou plusieurs pieds et qui sert à divers usages. Tissu d'armure simple, de fils de lin, de chanvre, de coton, etc.

Where the eye mixes table and toile

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

5 ch
table
5 ch
toile

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. table (\tabl\) and toile (\twal\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4312, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

table is recorded at frequency rank #1,013, classified as anoun, pronounced \tabl\. toile is at rank #3,299, tagged as anoun, pronounced \twal\.

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 4312, this pair ranks #431,924 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of table vs toile

Shared letters: elt. Private to "table": ab. Private to "toile": io.

"table" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "toile" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tableatble · tabble · tabel · tablle · talbe · tbale · ttable
  • toileotile · tiole · toiel · toille · tolie · ttoile

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "table" and "toile" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\tabl\ versus \twal\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "table" or "toile"?
"table" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,013 in our French list, against #3,299 for "toile". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list