tosvstrocTell them apart

Which to use

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

#48,234
“tos” frequency rank
#30,408
“troc” frequency rank
78642
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tos troc
Definition Élève de première année à l’École polytechnique. Échange direct de biens ou services non retranscrit par une opération monétaire.

Where the eye mixes tos and troc

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. tos runs 3 letters (CVC) against troc's 4 (CCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
tos
4 ch
troc

Look-alike desk: tos vs troc

A purely visual mix-up. tos (\tos\) and troc (\tʁɔk\) 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 78642, 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\. troc is at rank #30,408, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tʁɔk\.

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 78642, this pair ranks #25,226 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of tos vs troc

Shared letters: ot. Private to "tos": s. Private to "troc": cr.

"tos" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "troc" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • troc ← rtoc · torc · trco · trocc · trroc · ttroc

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "tos" and "troc" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\tos\ versus \tʁɔk\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "tos" vs "troc" - which ranks higher?
"troc" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,408 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.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tos" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "troc" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #25,226 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tos" and "troc" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tif vs tos". 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 #25,226 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