taresvstartesConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#43,689
“tares” frequency rank
#21,790
“tartes” frequency rank
65479
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tares tartes
Definition Pluriel de tare. Pluriel de tarte.

Where the eye mixes tares and tartes

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

5 ch
tares
6 ch
tartes

Visual trap between tares and tartes

A purely visual mix-up. tares (\taʁ\) and tartes (\taʁt\) 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 65479, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tares is recorded at frequency rank #43,689, classified as anoun, pronounced \taʁ\. tartes is at rank #21,790, tagged as anoun, pronounced \taʁt\.

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 65479, this pair ranks #72,164 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of tares vs tartes

Shared letters: aerst. Private to "tares": -. Private to "tartes": -.

"tares" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "tartes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • taresatres · taers · taress · tarres · traes · ttares
  • tartesatrtes · tarets · tarrtes · tartess · tartse · tarttes · tatres · trates

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "tares" for "tartes" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\taʁ\ versus \taʁt\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "tares" vs "tartes" - which ranks higher?
"tartes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,790 in our French list, against #43,689 for "tares". 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 "tares" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tartes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #72,164 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tares" and "tartes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tares vs tories". 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 #72,164 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