toastvstosTell them apart

Which to use

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

#29,569
“toast” frequency rank
#48,234
“tos” frequency rank
77803
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature toast tos
Definition Proposition de boire à la santé de quelqu’un, à l’accomplissement d’un vœu, etc. Élève de première année à l’École polytechnique.

Where the eye mixes toast and tos

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. toast runs 5 letters (CVVCC) against tos's 3 (CVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
toast
3 ch
tos

Why the eye confuses toast with tos

A purely visual mix-up. toast (\tost\) and tos (\tos\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 77803, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

toast is recorded at frequency rank #29,569, classified as anoun, pronounced \tost\. tos is at rank #48,234, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tos\.

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 77803, this pair ranks #27,411 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of toast vs tos

Shared letters: ost. Private to "toast": a. Private to "tos": -.

"toast" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC  ·  "tos" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • toast ← otast · taost · toasst · toastt · toats · tosat · ttoast

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "toast" and "tos" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\tost\ versus \tos\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "toast" vs "tos" - which ranks higher?
"toast" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,569 in our French list, against #48,234 for "tos". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "toast" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #27,411 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "toast" and "tos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tif 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 #27,411 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