tirvstirezTell them apart

Quick tell: tir is a noun, tirez is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“tir” is a noun and “tirez” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,969
“tir” frequency rank
#20,867
“tirez” frequency rank
23836
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tir tirez
Definition Action, art de tirer, de faire partir une arme de jet ou une arme à feu dans une direction déterminée. Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de tirer.

Where the eye mixes tir and tirez

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

3 ch
tir
5 ch
tirez

Why the eye confuses tir with tirez

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: tir is \tiʁ\ while tirez is \ti.ʁe\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “tir” sits inside “tirez”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23836, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tir is recorded at frequency rank #2,969, classified as anoun, pronounced \tiʁ\. tirez is at rank #20,867, tagged as averb, pronounced \ti.ʁe\.

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 23836, this pair ranks #350,179 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of tir vs tirez

Shared letters: irt. Private to "tir": -. Private to "tirez": ez.

"tir" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "tirez" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tirezitrez · tierz · tirezz · tirrez · tirze · triez · ttirez

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "tir" for "tirez" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tir" is a noun and "tirez" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "tir" vs "tirez" - which ranks higher?
"tir" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,969 in our French list, against #20,867 for "tirez". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "tir" and "tirez" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tir" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tirez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #350,179 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tir" and "tirez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tirez vs titrer". 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 #350,179 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