tosvsTPEWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#48,234
“tos” frequency rank
#14,813
“TPE” frequency rank
63047
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tos TPE
Definition Élève de première année à l’École polytechnique. Travaux personnels encadrés.

Where the eye mixes tos and TPE

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence. tos (CVC) and TPE (CCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

3 ch
tos
3 ch
TPE

Visual trap between tos and TPE

A purely visual mix-up. tos (\tos\) and TPE (\te.pe.ə\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63047, 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\. TPE is at rank #14,813, tagged as anoun, pronounced \te.pe.ə\.

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 63047, this pair ranks #83,957 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of tos vs TPE

Shared letters: t. Private to "tos": os. Private to "TPE": ep.

"tos" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "TPE" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "tos" and "TPE" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\tos\ versus \te.pe.ə\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "tos" vs "TPE" - which ranks higher?
"TPE" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,813 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.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "tos" and "TPE" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tos" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "TPE" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #83,957 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tos" and "TPE" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tif vs tos". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #83,957 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