tienvstuésWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“tien” and “tués” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#7,007
“tien” frequency rank
#3,809
“tués” frequency rank
10816
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tien tués
Definition Ce qui est à toi ou ceux qui sont à toi. Masculin pluriel de tué.

Where the eye mixes tien and tués

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

4 ch
tien
4 ch
tués

Why the eye confuses tien with tués

A purely visual mix-up. tien (\tjɛ̃\) and tués (\tɥe\) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10816, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tien is recorded at frequency rank #7,007, classified as anadj, pronounced \tjɛ̃\. tués is at rank #3,809, tagged as anadj, pronounced \tɥe\.

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 10816, this pair ranks #411,555 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of tien vs tués

Shared letters: t. Private to "tien": ein. Private to "tués": sué.

"tien" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "tués" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tieniten · tein · tienn · tine · ttien

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "tien" and "tués" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\tjɛ̃\ versus \tɥe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "tien" or "tués" show up more?
"tués" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,809 in our French list, against #7,007 for "tien". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tien" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tués" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #411,555 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tien" and "tués" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tien vs tif". 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 #411,555 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