tablesvstôlesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#5,297
“tables” frequency rank
#36,633
“tôles” frequency rank
41930
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tables tôles
Definition Pluriel de table. Pluriel de tôle.

Where the eye mixes tables and tôles

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. tables runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against tôles's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
tables
5 ch
tôles

Visual trap between tables and tôles

A purely visual mix-up. tables (\tabl\) and tôles (\tol\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41930, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tables is recorded at frequency rank #5,297, classified as anoun, pronounced \tabl\. tôles is at rank #36,633, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tol\.

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 41930, this pair ranks #229,493 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tables vs tôles

Shared letters: elst. Private to "tables": ab. Private to "tôles": ô.

"tables" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "tôles" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tables ← atbles · tabbles · tabels · tabless · tablles · tablse · talbes · tbales

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "tables" and "tôles" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\tabl\ versus \tol\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "tables" or "tôles"?
"tables" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,297 in our French list, against #36,633 for "tôles". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tables" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tôles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #229,493 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tables" and "tôles" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tôles vs trônes". 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 #229,493 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list