Which to use
“tone” is a verb and “tourné” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #44,780
- “tone” frequency rank
- #3,300
- “tourné” frequency rank
- 48080
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tone | tourné |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Deuxième personne du singulier de l’impératif présent de tonen. | Aigri. |
Where the eye mixes tone and tourné
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. tone runs 4 letters (CVCV) against tourné's 6 (CVVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses tone with tourné
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: tone is \ˈtoːnə\ while tourné is \tuʁ.ne\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48080, 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\. tourné is at rank #3,300, tagged as anadj, pronounced \tuʁ.ne\.
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 48080, this pair ranks #181,820 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of tone vs tourné
Shared letters: not. Private to "tone": e. Private to "tourné": rué.
"tone" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "tourné" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- tone ← otne · tnoe · toen · ttone
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "tone" and "tourné" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "tone" or "tourné" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "tone" and "tourné" 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 "tourné" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #181,820 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tone" and "tourné" 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 #181,820 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.