tempvsteufTell them apart

Which to use

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

#26,891
“temp” frequency rank
#34,327
“teuf” frequency rank
61218
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature temp teuf
Definition Intérimaire (suppléant, employé embauché pour une courte durée). Fête.

Where the eye mixes temp and teuf

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. temp (CVCC) and teuf (CVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
temp
4 ch
teuf

Visual trap between temp and teuf

A purely visual mix-up. temp (\tɛmp\) and teuf (\tœf\) 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 61218, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

temp is recorded at frequency rank #26,891, classified as anoun, pronounced \tɛmp\. teuf is at rank #34,327, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tœf\.

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 61218, this pair ranks #93,453 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of temp vs teuf

Shared letters: et. Private to "temp": mp. Private to "teuf": fu.

"temp" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "teuf" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • temp ← etmp · temmp · tempp · tepm · tmep · ttemp
  • teuf ← etuf · tefu · teuff · tteuf · tuef

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "temp" and "teuf" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\tɛmp\ versus \tœf\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "temp" vs "teuf" - which ranks higher?
"temp" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,891 in our French list, against #34,327 for "teuf". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "temp" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "teuf" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #93,453 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "temp" and "teuf" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "teuf 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 #93,453 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