Which to use
“te” is a pronoun and “ty” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #103
- “te” frequency rank
- #21,196
- “ty” frequency rank
- 21299
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | te | ty |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Flûte chinoise. |
Where the eye mixes te and ty
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.
Look-alike desk: te vs ty
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: te is \tə\ while ty is \ti\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - e in “te” becomes y in “ty”, and the parts of speech differ too (pronoun vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21299, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
te is recorded at frequency rank #103, classified as apron, pronounced \tə\. ty is at rank #21,196, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ti\.
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 21299, this pair ranks #363,890 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of te vs ty
Shared letters: t. Private to "te": e. Private to "ty": y.
"te" · 2 letters · shape CV · "ty" · 2 letters · shape CV
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "te" and "ty" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "te" or "ty"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "te" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "ty" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #363,890 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "te" and "ty" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tif vs ty". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #363,890 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.