tilvstirConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#25,835
“til” frequency rank
#2,969
“tir” frequency rank
28804
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature til tir
Definition Tilleul. Action, art de tirer, de faire partir une arme de jet ou une arme à feu dans une direction déterminée.

Letter map: til vs tir

Shared letters muted; letters that set til and tir apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch
til
3 ch
tir

Corpus notes: til and tir

til and tir are indexed as a confusable French pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by a single letter - l in “til” becomes r in “tir”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28804, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

til is recorded at frequency rank #25,835, classified as anoun. tir is at rank #2,969, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tiʁ\.

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 28804, this pair ranks #320,615 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of til vs tir

Shared letters: it. Private to "til": l. Private to "tir": r.

"til" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "tir" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "til" and "tir" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They differ by a single letter - l in “til” becomes r in “tir”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "til" vs "tir" - which ranks higher?
"tir" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,969 in our French list, against #25,835 for "til". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "til" vs "tir" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "til" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tir" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #320,615 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "til" and "tir" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tif vs til". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #320,615 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