Which to use
“tombé” is an adjective and “tomes” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,342
- “tombé” frequency rank
- #11,493
- “tomes” frequency rank
- 13835
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tombé | tomes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Déchu, qui n’a plus beaucoup de succès. | Pluriel de tome. |
Where the eye mixes tombé and tomes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: tombé vs tomes
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: tombé is \tɔ̃.be\ while tomes is \tɔm\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13835, 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\. tomes is at rank #11,493, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tɔm\.
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 13835, this pair ranks #399,358 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of tombé vs tomes
Shared letters: mot. Private to "tombé": bé. Private to "tomes": es.
"tombé" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "tomes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- tomes ← otmes · tmoes · toems · tomess · tommes · tomse · ttomes
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "tombé" for "tomes" ever safe?
Frequency check: "tombé" vs "tomes" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "tombé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tomes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #399,358 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tombé" and "tomes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tomes vs trônes". 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 #399,358 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.