tombervstomberaConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#1,048
“tomber” frequency rank
#19,700
“tombera” frequency rank
20748
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tomber tombera
Definition Être entraîné en bas par son poids. Troisième personne du singulier du futur de tomber.

Where the eye mixes tomber and tombera

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

6 ch
tomber
7 ch
tombera

Why the eye confuses tomber with tombera

A purely visual mix-up. tomber (\tɔ̃.be\) and tombera (\tɔ̃.bə.ʁa\) 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 1 extra letter(s) - “tomber” sits inside “tombera”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20748, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tomber is recorded at frequency rank #1,048, classified as averb, pronounced \tɔ̃.be\. tombera is at rank #19,700, tagged as averb, pronounced \tɔ̃.bə.ʁa\.

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 20748, this pair ranks #366,698 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of tomber vs tombera

Shared letters: bemort. Private to "tomber": -. Private to "tombera": a.

"tomber" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "tombera" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tomberotmber · tmober · tobmer · tombber · tomberr · tombre · tomebr · tommber
  • tomberaotmbera · tmobera · tobmera · tombbera · tombear · tomberra · tombrea · tomebra

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "tomber" for "tombera" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\tɔ̃.be\ versus \tɔ̃.bə.ʁa\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "tomber" or "tombera"?
"tomber" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,048 in our French list, against #19,700 for "tombera". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "tomber" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tombera" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #366,698 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tomber" and "tombera" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tombera vs tombeur". 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 #366,698 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