Which to use
“tortue” is a noun and “tortues” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #10,960
- “tortue” frequency rank
- #14,374
- “tortues” frequency rank
- 25334
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tortue | tortues |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Reptile à quatre pieds, qui marche très lentement, et dont tout le corps, à la réserve de la tête, des pieds et de la queue, est couvert d’une grande coquille dure et le plus souvent garnie d’écailles. | Féminin pluriel de tortu. |
Where the spellings diverge
Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set tortue and tortues apart are highlighted. They share 6 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
tortue and tortues form a confusable pair in the French index, two distinct headwords that are easily confused because they look alike, sound alike, or both. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “tortue” sits inside “tortues” - close enough that the eye skips over the difference, far enough that meaning fully diverges. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25334, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
tortue is recorded at frequency rank #10,960, classified as anoun, pronounced \tɔʁ.ty\. tortues is at rank #14,374, tagged as anadj, pronounced \tɔʁ.ty\.
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 25334, this pair ranks #341,451 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Frequency comparison
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "tortue" and "tortues" be used interchangeably?
Remembering tortue vs tortues
The fastest way to pick the right one every time.
- Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “tortue”; for an adjective, it's “tortues”.
- See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “tortue” entry
- Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable