talevstalusWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#36,178
“tale” frequency rank
#25,508
“talus” frequency rank
61686
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tale talus
Definition Groupe d’arbres, de plantes, d'arbrisseaux fruitiers ou de végétaux d’une même espèce qui croissent de manière très dense dans un endroit donné ; cet endroit. Pente, inclinaison.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set tale and talus apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch
tale
5 ch
talus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. tale (\tal\) and talus (\ta.ly\) 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 61686, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tale is recorded at frequency rank #36,178, classified as anoun, pronounced \tal\. talus is at rank #25,508, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ta.ly\.

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 61686, this pair ranks #90,991 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of tale vs talus

Shared letters: alt. Private to "tale": e. Private to "talus": su.

"tale" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "talus" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • taleatle · tael · talle · tlae · ttale
  • talusatlus · tallus · talsu · taluss · tauls · tlaus · ttalus

Frequency comparison

tale#36,178
talus#25,508

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "tale" and "talus" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\tal\ versus \ta.ly\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "tale" or "talus"?
"talus" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,508 in our French list, against #36,178 for "tale". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering tale vs talus

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “tale” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list