Which to use
“tool” and “tou” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #40,535
- “tool” frequency rank
- #17,579
- “tou” frequency rank
- 58114
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tool | tou |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Outil. | Serment. |
Where the eye mixes tool and tou
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between tool and tou
A purely visual mix-up. tool (\tuːl\) and tou (\ˈtu:\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58114, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
tool is recorded at frequency rank #40,535, classified as anoun, pronounced \tuːl\. tou is at rank #17,579, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈtu:\.
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 58114, this pair ranks #110,945 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of tool vs tou
Shared letters: ot. Private to "tool": l. Private to "tou": u.
"tool" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "tou" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- tool ← otol · tol · tolo · tooll · ttool
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "tool" and "tou" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "tool" or "tou"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "tool" and "tou" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "tool" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tou" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #110,945 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tool" and "tou" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "todo vs tool". 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 #110,945 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.