tardvstocardConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#383
“tard” frequency rank
#32,621
“tocard” frequency rank
33004
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tard tocard
Definition ou Qui survient à un moment avancé. Démodé, sans valeur, laid, de mauvais goût, sans attrait physique ou intellectuel.

Where the eye mixes tard and tocard

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

4 ch
tard
6 ch
tocard

Why the eye confuses tard with tocard

A purely visual mix-up. tard (\taʁ\) and tocard (\tɔ.kaʁ\) 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 33004, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tard is recorded at frequency rank #383, classified as anadj, pronounced \taʁ\. tocard is at rank #32,621, tagged as anadj, pronounced \tɔ.kaʁ\.

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 33004, this pair ranks #293,507 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tard vs tocard

Shared letters: adrt. Private to "tard": -. Private to "tocard": co.

"tard" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "tocard" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tardatrd · tadr · tardd · tarrd · trad · ttard
  • tocardotcard · tcoard · toacrd · tocadr · tocardd · tocarrd · toccard · tocrad

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "tard" and "tocard" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\taʁ\ versus \tɔ.kaʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "tard" or "tocard"?
"tard" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #383 in our French list, against #32,621 for "tocard". 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 "tard" and "tocard" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tard" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tocard" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #293,507 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tard" and "tocard" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tocard vs tocards". 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 #293,507 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