tarévstriWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: taré is a adjective, tri is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“taré” is an adjective and “tri” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#15,521
“taré” frequency rank
#7,011
“tri” frequency rank
22532
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature taré tri
Definition Qui a été comparé à une référence. Action de trier.

Where the eye mixes taré and tri

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
taré
3 ch
tri

Why the eye confuses taré with tri

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: taré is \ta.ʁe\ while tri is \tʁi\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22532, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

taré is recorded at frequency rank #15,521, classified as anadj, pronounced \ta.ʁe\. tri is at rank #7,011, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tʁi\.

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 22532, this pair ranks #357,483 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of taré vs tri

Shared letters: rt. Private to "taré": . Private to "tri": i.

"taré" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "tri" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "taré" for "tri" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "taré" is an adjective and "tri" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "taré" or "tri" show up more?
"tri" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,011 in our French list, against #15,521 for "taré". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "taré" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tri" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #357,483 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "taré" and "tri" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "taré vs turf". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #357,483 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