tempsvstomesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#89
“temps” frequency rank
#11,493
“tomes” frequency rank
11582
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature temps tomes
Definition Durée des choses, marquée par certaines périodes, et principalement par la révolution apparente du soleil ; écart entre le déroulement de deux événements. Pluriel de tome.

Where the eye mixes temps and tomes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
temps
5 ch
tomes

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. temps (\tɑ̃\) and tomes (\tɔm\) 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 11582, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

temps is recorded at frequency rank #89, classified as anoun, pronounced \tɑ̃\. tomes is at rank #11,493, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tɔm\.

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 11582, this pair ranks #408,620 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of temps vs tomes

Shared letters: emst. Private to "temps": p. Private to "tomes": o.

"temps" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "tomes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tempsetmps · temmps · tempps · tempss · temsp · tepms · tmeps · ttemps
  • tomesotmes · tmoes · toems · tomess · tommes · tomse · ttomes

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "temps" and "tomes" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\tɑ̃\ versus \tɔm\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "temps" or "tomes"?
"temps" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #89 in our French list, against #11,493 for "tomes". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list