tabousvstousConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#22,114
“tabous” frequency rank
#79
“tous” frequency rank
22193
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tabous tous
Definition Masculin pluriel de tabou. Masculin pluriel de tout.

Where the eye mixes tabous and tous

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
tabous
4 ch
tous

Why the eye confuses tabous with tous

A purely visual mix-up. tabous (\ta.bu\) and tous (\tu\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22193, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tabous is recorded at frequency rank #22,114, classified as anadj, pronounced \ta.bu\. tous is at rank #79, tagged as anadj, pronounced \tu\.

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 22193, this pair ranks #359,366 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of tabous vs tous

Shared letters: ostu. Private to "tabous": ab. Private to "tous": -.

"tabous" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "tous" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tabousatbous · tabbous · tabosu · tabouss · tabuos · taobus · tbaous · ttabous
  • tousotus · tosu · touss · ttous · tuos

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "tabous" and "tous" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ta.bu\ versus \tu\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "tabous" or "tous"?
"tous" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #79 in our French list, against #22,114 for "tabous". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "tabous" and "tous" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tabous" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tous" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #359,366 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tabous" and "tous" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tabous vs tatoués". 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 #359,366 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