tombévstombeurWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: tombé is a adjective, tombeur is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#2,342
“tombé” frequency rank
#34,336
“tombeur” frequency rank
36678
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tombé tombeur
Definition Déchu, qui n’a plus beaucoup de succès. Vainqueur ; conquérant.

Where the eye mixes tombé and tombeur

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
tombé
7 ch
tombeur

Look-alike desk: tombé vs tombeur

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: tombé is \tɔ̃.be\ while tombeur is \tɔ̃.bœʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36678, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tombé is recorded at frequency rank #2,342, classified as anadj, pronounced \tɔ̃.be\. tombeur is at rank #34,336, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tɔ̃.bœʁ\.

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 36678, this pair ranks #267,908 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tombé vs tombeur

Shared letters: bmot. Private to "tombé": é. Private to "tombeur": eru.

"tombé" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "tombeur" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tombeurotmbeur · tmobeur · tobmeur · tombbeur · tomberu · tombeurr · tombuer · tomebur

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "tombé" for "tombeur" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tombé" is an adjective and "tombeur" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "tombé" or "tombeur" show up more?
"tombé" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,342 in our French list, against #34,336 for "tombeur". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tombé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tombeur" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #267,908 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tombé" and "tombeur" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tombeur vs torpeur". 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 #267,908 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