Which to use
“thon” and “thou” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #13,703
- “thon” frequency rank
- #44,777
- “thou” frequency rank
- 58480
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | thon | thou |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Grand poisson bleu argenté de la famille des scombridés, au corps allongé et hydrodynamique, très bon nageur, vivant en banc. | Écluse en pierre ou en béton permettant de vider lentement les étangs de la Dombes dans l'Ain. |
Where the eye mixes thon and thou
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. thon (CCVC) and thou (CCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between thon and thou
A purely visual mix-up. thon (\tɔ̃\) and thou (\tu\) 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 - n in “thon” becomes u in “thou”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58480, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
thon is recorded at frequency rank #13,703, classified as anoun, pronounced \tɔ̃\. thou is at rank #44,777, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tu\.
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 58480, this pair ranks #108,830 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of thon vs thou
Shared letters: hot. Private to "thon": n. Private to "thou": u.
"thon" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "thou" · 4 letters · shape CCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "thon" and "thou" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "thon" or "thou"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "thon" and "thou" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "thon" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "thou" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #108,830 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "thon" and "thou" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "thou vs tos". 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 #108,830 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.