tontevstoutesConfusable pair

Quick tell: tonte is a noun, toutes is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“tonte” is a noun and “toutes” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#38,573
“tonte” frequency rank
#155
“toutes” frequency rank
38728
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tonte toutes
Definition Action de tondre la laine, la pelouse, etc. Féminin pluriel de tout.

Where the eye mixes tonte and toutes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. tonte runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against toutes's 6 (CVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
tonte
6 ch
toutes

Why the eye confuses tonte with toutes

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: tonte is \tɔ̃t\ while toutes is \tut\. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38728, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tonte is recorded at frequency rank #38,573, classified as anoun, pronounced \tɔ̃t\. toutes is at rank #155, tagged as anadj, pronounced \tut\.

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 38728, this pair ranks #253,231 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tonte vs toutes

Shared letters: eot. Private to "tonte": n. Private to "toutes": su.

"tonte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "toutes" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tonte ← otnte · tnote · tonet · tonnte · tontte · totne · ttonte
  • toutes ← otutes · totues · touets · toutess · toutse · touttes · ttoutes · tuotes

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "tonte" and "toutes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tonte" is a noun and "toutes" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "tonte" or "toutes"?
"toutes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #155 in our French list, against #38,573 for "tonte". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tonte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "toutes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #253,231 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tonte" and "toutes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tinto vs tonte". 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 #253,231 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