Which to use
“te” is a pronoun and “tir” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #103
- “te” frequency rank
- #2,969
- “tir” frequency rank
- 3072
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | te | tir |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pronom à la deuxième personne du singulier, utilisé pour désigner celui à qui l’on parle, en tant que complément d’objet direct ou indirect. | Action, art de tirer, de faire partir une arme de jet ou une arme à feu dans une direction déterminée. |
Where the eye mixes te and tir
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.
Visual trap between te and tir
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: te is \tə\ while tir is \tiʁ\. 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 (pronoun vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3072, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
te is recorded at frequency rank #103, classified as apron, pronounced \tə\. tir is at rank #2,969, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tiʁ\.
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 3072, this pair ranks #434,848 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of te vs tir
Shared letters: t. Private to "te": e. Private to "tir": ir.
"te" · 2 letters · shape CV · "tir" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "te" for "tir" ever safe?
Which is more common, "te" or "tir"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "te" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tir" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #434,848 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "te" and "tir" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tif vs tir". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #434,848 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.