tos vs tours, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“tos” and “tours” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#48,234
“tos” frequency rank: #2,105
“tours” frequency rank: 50339
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	tos	tours
Definition	Élève de première année à l’École polytechnique.	Pluriel de tour.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set tos and tours apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

3 ch

tos

5 ch

tours

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. tos (\tos\) and tours (\tuʁ\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50339, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tos is recorded at frequency rank #48,234, classified as anoun, pronounced \tos\. tours is at rank #2,105, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tuʁ\.

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 50339, this pair ranks #163,416 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tos vs tours

Shared letters: ost. Private to "tos": -. Private to "tours": ru.

"tos" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "tours" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

tours ← oturs · torus · tourrs · tourss · tousr · ttours · tuors

Frequency comparison

tos#48,234

tours#2,105

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

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

No. They are said differently (\tos\ versus \tuʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

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

"tours" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,105 in our French list, against #48,234 for "tos". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering tos vs tours

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “tos” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable