tranquillevstranquillouWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: tranquille is a adjective, tranquillou is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“tranquille” is an adjective and “tranquillou” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,154
“tranquille” frequency rank
#42,091
“tranquillou” frequency rank
44245
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tranquille tranquillou
Definition Qui est paisible, calme, sans agitation. Tranquillement.

Where the eye mixes tranquille and tranquillou

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. tranquille runs 10 letters (CCVCCVVCCV) against tranquillou's 11 (CCVCCVVCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

10 ch
tranquille
11 ch
tranquillou

Visual trap between tranquille and tranquillou

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: tranquille is \tʁɑ̃.kil\ while tranquillou is \tʁɑ̃.ki.lu\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44245, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tranquille is recorded at frequency rank #2,154, classified as anadj, pronounced \tʁɑ̃.kil\. tranquillou is at rank #42,091, tagged as anadv, pronounced \tʁɑ̃.ki.lu\.

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 44245, this pair ranks #211,960 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tranquille vs tranquillou

Shared letters: ailnqrtu. Private to "tranquille": e. Private to "tranquillou": o.

"tranquille" · 10 letters · shape CCVCCVVCCV  ·  "tranquillou" · 11 letters · shape CCVCCVVCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tranquille ← rtanquille · tarnquille · trannquille · tranqiulle · tranqquille · tranquile · tranquilel · tranqulile
  • tranquillou ← rtanquillou · tarnquillou · trannquillou · tranqiullou · tranqquillou · tranquilluo · tranquilolu · tranquilou

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "tranquille" for "tranquillou" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tranquille" is an adjective and "tranquillou" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "tranquille" or "tranquillou" show up more?
"tranquille" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,154 in our French list, against #42,091 for "tranquillou". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "tranquille" and "tranquillou" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tranquille" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tranquillou" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #211,960 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tranquille" and "tranquillou" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tranquilles vs tranquillou". 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 #211,960 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