toutvstrueConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#48
“tout” frequency rank
#12,495
“true” frequency rank
12543
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tout true
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. Vrai , vraie.

Where the eye mixes tout and true

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
tout
4 ch
true

Why the eye confuses tout with true

A purely visual mix-up. tout (\tu\) and true (\tɹu\) 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 12543, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tout is recorded at frequency rank #48, classified as anadj, pronounced \tu\. true is at rank #12,495, tagged as anadj, pronounced \tɹu\.

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 12543, this pair ranks #404,808 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of tout vs true

Shared letters: tu. Private to "tout": o. Private to "true": er.

"tout" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "true" · 4 letters · shape CCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • toutotut · totu · toutt · ttout · tuot
  • truertue · treu · trrue · ttrue

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "tout" and "true" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\tu\ versus \tɹu\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "tout" or "true"?
"tout" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #48 in our French list, against #12,495 for "true". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tout" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "true" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #404,808 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tout" and "true" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "true 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

Confusion rank #404,808 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