Which to use
“tone” is a verb and “tonte” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #44,780
- “tone” frequency rank
- #38,573
- “tonte” frequency rank
- 83353
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tone | tonte |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Deuxième personne du singulier de l’impératif présent de tonen. | Action de tondre la laine, la pelouse, etc. |
Where the eye mixes tone and tonte
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. tone runs 4 letters (CVCV) against tonte's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses tone with tonte
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: tone is \ˈtoːnə\ while tonte is \tɔ̃t\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 83353, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
tone is recorded at frequency rank #44,780, classified as averb, pronounced \ˈtoːnə\. tonte is at rank #38,573, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tɔ̃t\.
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 83353, this pair ranks #14,990 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of tone vs tonte
Shared letters: enot. Private to "tone": -. Private to "tonte": -.
"tone" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "tonte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "tone" for "tonte" ever safe?
Which is more common, "tone" or "tonte"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "tone" and "tonte" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "tone" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tonte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #14,990 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tone" and "tonte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tone vs tun". 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 #14,990 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.