tomasvstombaisTell them apart

Which to use

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

#24,410
“tomas” frequency rank
#46,492
“tombais” frequency rank
70902
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tomas tombais
Definition Deuxième personne du singulier du passé simple de tomer. Première personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de tomber.

Where the eye mixes tomas and tombais

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

5 ch
tomas
7 ch
tombais

Look-alike desk: tomas vs tombais

A purely visual mix-up. tomas (\tɔ.ma\) and tombais (\tɔ̃.bɛ\) 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 70902, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tomas is recorded at frequency rank #24,410, classified as averb, pronounced \tɔ.ma\. tombais is at rank #46,492, tagged as averb, pronounced \tɔ̃.bɛ\.

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 70902, this pair ranks #49,546 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of tomas vs tombais

Shared letters: amost. Private to "tomas": -. Private to "tombais": bi.

"tomas" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "tombais" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tomasotmas · tmoas · toams · tomass · tommas · tomsa · ttomas
  • tombaisotmbais · tmobais · tobmais · tomabis · tombaiss · tombasi · tombbais · tombias

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "tomas" for "tombais" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\tɔ.ma\ versus \tɔ̃.bɛ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "tomas" or "tombais" show up more?
"tomas" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,410 in our French list, against #46,492 for "tombais". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "tomas" and "tombais" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tomas" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tombais" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #49,546 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tomas" and "tombais" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tombais vs tombons". 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 #49,546 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