Which to use
“tri” and “trou” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #7,011
- “tri” frequency rank
- #2,396
- “trou” frequency rank
- 9407
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tri | trou |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Action de trier. | Ouverture au travers d’un corps ou qui y pénètre à une certaine profondeur. |
Where the eye mixes tri and trou
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between tri and trou
A purely visual mix-up. tri (\tʁi\) and trou (\tʁu\) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9407, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
tri is recorded at frequency rank #7,011, classified as anoun, pronounced \tʁi\. trou is at rank #2,396, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tʁu\.
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 9407, this pair ranks #416,773 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of tri vs trou
Shared letters: rt. Private to "tri": i. Private to "trou": ou.
"tri" · 3 letters · shape CCV · "trou" · 4 letters · shape CCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- trou ← rtou · trrou · truo · ttrou
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "tri" and "trou" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "tri" or "trou" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "tri" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "trou" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #416,773 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tri" and "trou" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tif vs tri". 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 #416,773 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.