tosvstoutsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#48,234
“tos” frequency rank
#29,573
“touts” frequency rank
77807
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tos touts
Definition Élève de première année à l’École polytechnique. Pluriel de tout.

Where the spellings diverge

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

3 ch
tos
5 ch
touts

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. tos (\tos\) and touts (\tu\) 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 77807, 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\. touts is at rank #29,573, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tu\.

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 77807, this pair ranks #27,400 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of tos vs touts

Shared letters: ost. Private to "tos": -. Private to "touts": u.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • toutsotuts · totus · toust · toutss · toutts · ttouts

Frequency comparison

tos#48,234
touts#29,573

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "tos" and "touts" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\tos\ versus \tu\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "tos" or "touts"?
"touts" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,573 in our French list, against #48,234 for "tos". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering tos vs touts

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

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list