tonvstunTell them apart

Quick tell: ton is a determiner, tun is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ton” is a determiner and “tun” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#127
“ton” frequency rank
#49,414
“tun” frequency rank
49541
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ton tun
Definition Déterminant possessif dont le possesseur est la deuxième personne du singulier et le possédé est masculin singulier. Craie glauconieuse.

Where the eye mixes ton and tun

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

3 ch
ton
3 ch
tun

Visual trap between ton and tun

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ton is \tɔ̃\ while tun is \tyn\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - o in “ton” becomes u in “tun”, and the parts of speech differ too (determiner vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49541, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ton is recorded at frequency rank #127, classified as adet, pronounced \tɔ̃\. tun is at rank #49,414, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tyn\.

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 49541, this pair ranks #169,787 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ton vs tun

Shared letters: nt. Private to "ton": o. Private to "tun": u.

"ton" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "tun" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ton" and "tun" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ton" is a determiner and "tun" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "ton" or "tun"?
"ton" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #127 in our French list, against #49,414 for "tun". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ton" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tun" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #169,787 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ton" and "tun" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tif vs tun". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #169,787 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