Which to use
“toby” and “tou” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #23,711
- “toby” frequency rank
- #17,579
- “tou” frequency rank
- 41290
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | toby | tou |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Poisson des récifs coralliens. | Serment. |
Where the eye mixes toby and tou
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: toby vs tou
A purely visual mix-up. toby (\tɔ.bi\) and tou (\ˈtu:\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41290, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
toby is recorded at frequency rank #23,711, classified as anoun, pronounced \tɔ.bi\. tou is at rank #17,579, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈtu:\.
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 41290, this pair ranks #234,200 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of toby vs tou
Shared letters: ot. Private to "toby": by. Private to "tou": u.
"toby" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "tou" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- toby ← otby · tboy · tobby · tobyy · toyb · ttoby
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "toby" and "tou" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "toby" or "tou"?
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 "toby" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tou" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #234,200 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "toby" and "tou" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "toby vs todo". 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 #234,200 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.