Which to use
“tomber” is a verb and “tombés” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,048
- “tomber” frequency rank
- #8,170
- “tombés” frequency rank
- 9218
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tomber | tombés |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Être entraîné en bas par son poids. | Masculin pluriel de tombé. |
Same sound, different letters: tomber vs tombés
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters. tomber and tombés follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Ear matches; page differs - tomber and tombés
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: tomber and tombés carry the same recorded pronunciation, \tɔ̃.be\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is averb, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9218, 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\. tombés is at rank #8,170, tagged as anadj, pronounced \tɔ̃.be\.
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 9218, this pair ranks #417,413 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of tomber vs tombés
Shared letters: bmot. Private to "tomber": er. Private to "tombés": sé.
"tomber" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "tombés" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- tomber ← otmber · tmober · tobmer · tombber · tomberr · tombre · tomebr · tommber
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "tomber" and "tombés" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "tomber" or "tombés" show up more?
What to do next
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "tomber" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tombés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #417,413 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tomber" and "tombés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tombés vs tories". 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 #417,413 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.