Which to use
“tears” and “temps” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #43,692
- “tears” frequency rank
- #89
- “temps” frequency rank
- 43781
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tears | temps |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de tear. | Durée des choses, marquée par certaines périodes, et principalement par la révolution apparente du soleil ; écart entre le déroulement de deux événements. |
Where the eye mixes tears and temps
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: tears vs temps
A purely visual mix-up. tears (\ˈtɪɹz\) 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 43781, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
tears is recorded at frequency rank #43,692, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈtɪɹz\. 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 43781, this pair ranks #215,453 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of tears vs temps
Shared letters: est. Private to "tears": ar. Private to "temps": mp.
"tears" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "temps" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "tears" and "temps" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "tears" or "temps" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "tears" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "temps" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #215,453 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tears" and "temps" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "teach vs tears". 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 #215,453 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.