tâtervsteaserWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: tâter is a verb, teaser is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“tâter” is a verb and “teaser” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#36,196
“tâter” frequency rank
#26,560
“teaser” frequency rank
62756
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tâter teaser
Definition Toucher, manier doucement une chose, pour connaître son état. Leurre sans hameçon créant une agitation dans l’eau, ressemblant à une proie en détresse.

Where the eye mixes tâter and teaser

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
tâter
6 ch
teaser

Look-alike desk: tâter vs teaser

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: tâter is \tɑ.te\ while teaser is \ti.zœʁ\. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62756, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tâter is recorded at frequency rank #36,196, classified as averb, pronounced \tɑ.te\. teaser is at rank #26,560, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ti.zœʁ\.

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 62756, this pair ranks #85,463 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of tâter vs teaser

Shared letters: ert. Private to "tâter": â. Private to "teaser": as.

"tâter" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "teaser" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • teaseretaser · taeser · teaesr · teaserr · teasre · teasser · tesaer · tteaser

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "tâter" for "teaser" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tâter" is a verb and "teaser" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "tâter" or "teaser"?
"teaser" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,560 in our French list, against #36,196 for "tâter". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "tâter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "teaser" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #85,463 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tâter" and "teaser" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tâter vs titrer". 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 #85,463 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