teamsvstempsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#33,911
“teams” frequency rank
#89
“temps” frequency rank
34000
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature teams temps
Definition Pluriel de team. Durée des choses, marquée par certaines périodes, et principalement par la révolution apparente du soleil ; écart entre le déroulement de deux événements.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set teams and temps apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
teams
5 ch
temps

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. teams (\tim\) and temps (\tɑ̃\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34000, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

teams is recorded at frequency rank #33,911, classified as anoun, pronounced \tim\. temps is at rank #89, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tɑ̃\.

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 34000, this pair ranks #286,829 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of teams vs temps

Shared letters: emst. Private to "teams": a. Private to "temps": p.

"teams" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC  ·  "temps" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • teamsetams · taems · teamms · teamss · teasm · temas · tteams
  • tempsetmps · temmps · tempps · tempss · temsp · tepms · tmeps · ttemps

Frequency comparison

teams#33,911
temps#89

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "teams" and "temps" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\tim\ versus \tɑ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "teams" or "temps"?
"temps" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #89 in our French list, against #33,911 for "teams". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering teams vs temps

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “teams” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list