tone vs tos, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“tone” is a verb and “tos” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#44,780
“tone” frequency rank: #48,234
“tos” frequency rank: 93014
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	tone	tos
Definition	Deuxième personne du singulier de l’impératif présent de tonen.	Élève de première année à l’École polytechnique.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set tone and tos apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch

tone

3 ch

tos

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: tone is \ˈtoːnə\ while tos is \tos\. 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 93014, 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\. tos is at rank #48,234, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tos\.

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 93014, this pair ranks #2,582 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of tone vs tos

Shared letters: ot. Private to "tone": en. Private to "tos": s.

"tone" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "tos" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

tone ← otne · tnoe · toen · ttone

Frequency comparison

tone#44,780

tos#48,234

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "tone" and "tos" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tone" is a verb and "tos" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "tone" or "tos"?

"tone" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #44,780 in our French list, against #48,234 for "tos". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering tone vs tos

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “tone”; for a noun, it's “tos”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “tone” entry
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