Which to use
“thé” and “thu” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,575
- “thé” frequency rank
- #48,228
- “thu” frequency rank
- 51803
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | thé | thu |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Boisson chaude préparée à partir d’une infusion de feuilles du théier. | Forme mutée de tu par spirantisation. |
Where the eye mixes thé and thu
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses thé with thu
A purely visual mix-up. thé (\te\) and thu (\θɨː\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - é in “thé” becomes u in “thu”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51803, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
thé is recorded at frequency rank #3,575, classified as anoun, pronounced \te\. thu is at rank #48,228, tagged as anoun, pronounced \θɨː\.
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 51803, this pair ranks #152,356 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of thé vs thu
Shared letters: ht. Private to "thé": é. Private to "thu": u.
"thé" · 3 letters · shape CCV · "thu" · 3 letters · shape CCV
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "thé" and "thu" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "thé" or "thu" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "thé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "thu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #152,356 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "thé" and "thu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "thu vs tif". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #152,356 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.