tuilevstuqueTell them apart

Which to use

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

#28,781
“tuile” frequency rank
#32,631
“tuque” frequency rank
61412
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tuile tuque
Definition Carreau de peu d’épaisseur, fait de terre grasse pétrie, séchée et cuite au four, tantôt plat, tantôt courbé en demi-cylindre, et dont on se sert pour couvrir les maisons, les bâtiments. Tente ou abri qu’on élevait quelquefois à l’avant, plus souvent à l’arrière, sur la dunette.

Where the eye mixes tuile and tuque

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. tuile (CVVCV) and tuque (CVCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
tuile
5 ch
tuque

Why the eye confuses tuile with tuque

A purely visual mix-up. tuile (\tɥil\) and tuque (\tyk\) 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 61412, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tuile is recorded at frequency rank #28,781, classified as anoun, pronounced \tɥil\. tuque is at rank #32,631, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tyk\.

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 61412, this pair ranks #92,438 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of tuile vs tuque

Shared letters: etu. Private to "tuile": il. Private to "tuque": q.

"tuile" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "tuque" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tuile ← tiule · ttuile · tuiel · tuille · tulie
  • tuque ← tquue · ttuque · tuqeu · tuqque · tuuqe · utque

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "tuile" for "tuque" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\tɥil\ versus \tyk\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "tuile" or "tuque"?
"tuile" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,781 in our French list, against #32,631 for "tuque". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "tuile" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tuque" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #92,438 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tuile" and "tuque" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ténue vs tuque". 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 #92,438 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