tosvstuéConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#48,234
“tos” frequency rank
#1,543
“tué” frequency rank
49777
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tos tué
Definition Élève de première année à l’École polytechnique. Homme, ou garçon, décédé par fait de violence.

Where the eye mixes tos and tué

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
tos
3 ch
tué

Look-alike desk: tos vs tué

A purely visual mix-up. tos (\tos\) and tué (\tɥe\) 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 49777, 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\. tué is at rank #1,543, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tɥe\.

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 49777, this pair ranks #167,924 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tos vs tué

Shared letters: t. Private to "tos": os. Private to "tué": .

"tos" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "tué" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "tos" and "tué" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\tos\ versus \tɥe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "tos" vs "tué" - which ranks higher?
"tué" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,543 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.

What to do next

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 "tué" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #167,924 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tos" and "tué" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tif vs tos". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #167,924 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