Which to use
“tem” is a verb and “temps” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #46,481
- “tem” frequency rank
- #89
- “temps” frequency rank
- 46570
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tem | temps |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de ter. | 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 tem and temps
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses tem with temps
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: tem is \tɐ̃j\ while temps is \tɑ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “tem” sits inside “temps”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46570, 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\. 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 46570, this pair ranks #193,866 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of tem vs temps
Shared letters: emt. Private to "tem": -. Private to "temps": ps.
"tem" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "temps" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- temps ← etmps · temmps · tempps · tempss · temsp · tepms · tmeps · ttemps
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "tem" for "temps" ever safe?
Frequency check: "tem" vs "temps" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "tem" and "temps" 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 "temps" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #193,866 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tem" and "temps" 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 #193,866 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.