thuvstteTell them apart

Quick tell: thu is a noun, tte is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“thu” is a noun and “tte” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#48,228
“thu” frequency rank
#36,628
“tte” frequency rank
84856
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature thu tte
Definition Forme mutée de tu par spirantisation. Toute.

Where the eye mixes thu and tte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence. thu and tte follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

3 ch
thu
3 ch
tte

Look-alike desk: thu vs tte

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: thu is \θɨː\ while tte is \tut\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 84856, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

thu is recorded at frequency rank #48,228, classified as anoun, pronounced \θɨː\. tte is at rank #36,628, tagged as anadj, pronounced \tut\.

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 84856, this pair ranks #12,279 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of thu vs tte

Shared letters: t. Private to "thu": hu. Private to "tte": e.

"thu" · 3 letters · shape CCV  ·  "tte" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "thu" and "tte" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "thu" is a noun and "tte" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "thu" or "tte" show up more?
"tte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #36,628 in our French list, against #48,228 for "thu". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "thu" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #12,279 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "thu" and "tte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "thu vs tif". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #12,279 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list