Which to use
“tollé” and “tools” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #27,264
- “tollé” frequency rank
- #48,232
- “tools” frequency rank
- 75496
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tollé | tools |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Cri d’indignation (souvent figuratif). | Pluriel de tool. |
Where the eye mixes tollé and tools
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. tollé (CVCCV) and tools (CVVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between tollé and tools
A purely visual mix-up. tollé (\tɔ.le\) and tools (\tuːlz\) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 75496, 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\. tools is at rank #48,232, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tuːlz\.
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 75496, this pair ranks #33,909 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of tollé vs tools
Shared letters: lot. Private to "tollé": é. Private to "tools": s.
"tollé" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "tools" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- tools ← otols · tolos · tols · toolls · toolss · toosl · ttools
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "tollé" for "tools" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "tollé" or "tools" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "tollé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tools" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #33,909 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tollé" and "tools" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tools 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 #33,909 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.