tombévstouteWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#2,342
“tombé” frequency rank
#128
“toute” frequency rank
2470
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tombé toute
Definition Déchu, qui n’a plus beaucoup de succès. Féminin singulier de tout.

Where the eye mixes tombé and toute

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

5 ch
tombé
5 ch
toute

Visual trap between tombé and toute

A purely visual mix-up. tombé (\tɔ̃.be\) and toute (\tut\) 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 2470, 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\. toute is at rank #128, tagged as anadj, pronounced \tut\.

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 2470, this pair ranks #436,086 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of tombé vs toute

Shared letters: ot. Private to "tombé": bmé. Private to "toute": eu.

"tombé" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "toute" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • touteotute · totue · touet · toutte · ttoute · tuote

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "tombé" and "toute" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\tɔ̃.be\ versus \tut\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "tombé" or "toute" show up more?
"toute" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #128 in our French list, against #2,342 for "tombé". 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 "toute" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #436,086 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tombé" and "toute" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "toe vs tombé". 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 #436,086 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