tôlesvstousWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: tôles is a noun, tous is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“tôles” is a noun and “tous” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#36,633
“tôles” frequency rank
#79
“tous” frequency rank
36712
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tôles tous
Definition Pluriel de tôle. Masculin pluriel de tout.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set tôles and tous apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
tôles
4 ch
tous

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: tôles is \tol\ while tous is \tu\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36712, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tôles is recorded at frequency rank #36,633, classified as anoun, pronounced \tol\. tous is at rank #79, tagged as anadj, pronounced \tu\.

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 36712, this pair ranks #267,650 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tôles vs tous

Shared letters: st. Private to "tôles": elô. Private to "tous": ou.

"tôles" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "tous" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tousotus · tosu · touss · ttous · tuos

Frequency comparison

tôles#36,633
tous#79

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "tôles" and "tous" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tôles" is a noun and "tous" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "tôles" or "tous"?
"tous" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #79 in our French list, against #36,633 for "tôles". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering tôles vs tous

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “tôles”; for an adjective, it's “tous”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “tôles” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list