Which to use
“tollé” and “tonte” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #27,264
- “tollé” frequency rank
- #38,573
- “tonte” frequency rank
- 65837
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tollé | tonte |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Cri d’indignation (souvent figuratif). | Action de tondre la laine, la pelouse, etc. |
Where the eye mixes tollé and tonte
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. tollé and tonte follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses tollé with tonte
A purely visual mix-up. tollé (\tɔ.le\) and tonte (\tɔ̃t\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65837, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
tollé is recorded at frequency rank #27,264, classified as anoun, pronounced \tɔ.le\. tonte is at rank #38,573, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tɔ̃t\.
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 65837, this pair ranks #70,555 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of tollé vs tonte
Shared letters: ot. Private to "tollé": lé. Private to "tonte": en.
"tollé" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "tonte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- tonte ← otnte · tnote · tonet · tonnte · tontte · totne · ttonte
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "tollé" for "tonte" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "tollé" or "tonte" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "tollé" and "tonte" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "tollé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tonte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #70,555 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tollé" and "tonte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tinto vs tonte". 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 #70,555 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.