toutvstouteWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#48
“tout” frequency rank
#128
“toute” frequency rank
176
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tout toute
Definition Qui comprend l’intégrité, l’entièreté, la totalité d’une chose considérée par rapport au nombre, à l’étendue ou à l’intensité de l’énergie. Féminin singulier de tout.

Where the eye mixes tout and toute

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

4 ch
tout
5 ch
toute

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. tout (\tu\) and toute (\tut\) 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 extra letter(s) - “tout” sits inside “toute”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 176, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tout is recorded at frequency rank #48, classified as anadj, pronounced \tu\. toute is at rank #128, tagged as anadj, pronounced \tut\.

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 176, this pair ranks #440,012 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of tout vs toute

Shared letters: otu. Private to "tout": -. Private to "toute": e.

"tout" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "toute" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • toutotut · totu · toutt · ttout · tuot
  • touteotute · totue · touet · toutte · ttoute · tuote

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "tout" and "toute" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\tu\ versus \tut\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "tout" or "toute"?
"tout" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #48 in our French list, against #128 for "toute". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "tout" and "toute". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tout" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "toute" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #440,012 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tout" and "toute" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tout vs tun". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list