tellesvsTellierConfusable pair

Quick tell: telles is a adjective, Tellier is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“telles” is an adjective and “Tellier” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,977
“telles” frequency rank
#30,836
“Tellier” frequency rank
32813
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature telles Tellier
Definition Féminin pluriel de tel. Nom de famille.

Where the eye mixes telles and Tellier

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
telles
7 ch
Tellier

Look-alike desk: telles vs Tellier

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: telles is \tɛl\ while Tellier is \te.lje\. 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 (adjective vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32813, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

telles is recorded at frequency rank #1,977, classified as anadj, pronounced \tɛl\. Tellier is at rank #30,836, tagged as aname, pronounced \te.lje\.

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 32813, this pair ranks #294,796 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of telles vs Tellier

Shared letters: elt. Private to "telles": s. Private to "Tellier": ir.

"telles" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "Tellier" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tellesetlles · telels · teles · telless · tellse · tleles · ttelles
  • Tellieretllier · telier · teliler · telleir · tellierr · tellire · tlelier · ttellier

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "telles" and "Tellier" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "telles" is an adjective and "Tellier" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "telles" or "Tellier"?
"telles" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,977 in our French list, against #30,836 for "Tellier". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "telles" and "Tellier" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "telles" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Tellier" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #294,796 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "telles" and "Tellier" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Teller vs Tellier". 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 #294,796 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