Which to use
“ténue” is an adjective and “tone” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #48,245
- “ténue” frequency rank
- #44,780
- “tone” frequency rank
- 93025
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ténue | tone |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin singulier de ténu. | Deuxième personne du singulier de l’impératif présent de tonen. |
Where the eye mixes ténue and tone
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. ténue runs 5 letters (CVCVV) against tone's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: ténue vs tone
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ténue is \te.ny\ while tone is \ˈtoːnə\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 93025, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ténue is recorded at frequency rank #48,245, classified as anadj, pronounced \te.ny\. tone is at rank #44,780, tagged as averb, pronounced \ˈtoːnə\.
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 93025, this pair ranks #2,578 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of ténue vs tone
Shared letters: ent. Private to "ténue": ué. Private to "tone": o.
"ténue" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV · "tone" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- tone ← otne · tnoe · toen · ttone
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "ténue" and "tone" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "ténue" or "tone" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "ténue" and "tone" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "ténue" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tone" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #2,578 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ténue" and "tone" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tender vs ténue". 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 #2,578 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.