Which to use
“terre” and “three” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #386
- “terre” frequency rank
- #19,176
- “three” frequency rank
- 19562
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | terre | three |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Sol sur lequel nous marchons, sur lequel les maisons sont construites, qui produit et nourrit les végétaux. | (radiotéléphonie) Mot de code radiotéléphonique de l'OACI, OTAN et SIA pour le chiffre 3. |
Where the eye mixes terre and three
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses terre with three
A purely visual mix-up. terre (\tɛʁ\) and three (\ˈtri\) 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 19562, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
terre is recorded at frequency rank #386, classified as anoun, pronounced \tɛʁ\. three is at rank #19,176, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈtri\.
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 19562, this pair ranks #372,641 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of terre vs three
Shared letters: ert. Private to "terre": -. Private to "three": h.
"terre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "three" · 5 letters · shape CCCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "terre" and "three" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "terre" or "three" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "terre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "three" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #372,641 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "terre" and "three" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "taxée vs three". 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 #372,641 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.