Which to use
“tem” is a verb and “temp” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #46,481
- “tem” frequency rank
- #26,891
- “temp” frequency rank
- 73372
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tem | temp |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de ter. | Intérimaire (suppléant, employé embauché pour une courte durée). |
Where the eye mixes tem and temp
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. tem runs 3 letters (CVC) against temp's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses tem with temp
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: tem is \tɐ̃j\ while temp is \tɛmp\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “tem” sits inside “temp”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 73372, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
tem is recorded at frequency rank #46,481, classified as averb, pronounced \tɐ̃j\. temp is at rank #26,891, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tɛmp\.
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 73372, this pair ranks #40,703 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of tem vs temp
Shared letters: emt. Private to "tem": -. Private to "temp": p.
"tem" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "temp" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- temp ← etmp · temmp · tempp · tepm · tmep · ttemp
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "tem" and "temp" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "tem" or "temp" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "tem" and "temp" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "tem" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "temp" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #40,703 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tem" and "temp" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tem vs tif". 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 #40,703 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.