Which to use
“tos” is a noun and “tus” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #48,234
- “tos” frequency rank
- #40,544
- “tus” frequency rank
- 88778
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tos | tus |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Élève de première année à l’École polytechnique. | Masculin pluriel de tu. |
Where the eye mixes tos and tus
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. tos and tus follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between tos and tus
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: tos is \tos\ while tus is \ty\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - o in “tos” becomes u in “tus”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 88778, 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\. tus is at rank #40,544, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ty\.
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 88778, this pair ranks #6,531 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of tos vs tus
Shared letters: st. Private to "tos": o. Private to "tus": u.
"tos" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "tus" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "tos" for "tus" ever safe?
Frequency check: "tos" vs "tus" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "tos" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #6,531 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tos" and "tus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tif vs tos". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #6,531 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.