temvstuaWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#46,481
“tem” frequency rank
#23,403
“tua” frequency rank
69884
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tem tua
Definition Troisième personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de ter. Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de tuer.

Where the eye mixes tem and tua

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
tem
3 ch
tua

Look-alike desk: tem vs tua

A purely visual mix-up. tem (\tɐ̃j\) and tua (\tɥa\) 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 69884, 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\. tua is at rank #23,403, tagged as averb, pronounced \tɥa\.

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 69884, this pair ranks #53,445 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of tem vs tua

Shared letters: t. Private to "tem": em. Private to "tua": au.

"tem" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "tua" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "tem" and "tua" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\tɐ̃j\ versus \tɥa\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "tem" or "tua" show up more?
"tua" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,403 in our French list, against #46,481 for "tem". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "tem" and "tua" 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 "tua" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #53,445 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tem" and "tua" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tem vs tif". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #53,445 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