TutsivsTutsisWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Tutsi is a noun, Tutsis is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Tutsi” is a noun and “Tutsis” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#34,347
“Tutsi” frequency rank
#44,242
“Tutsis” frequency rank
78589
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Tutsi Tutsis
Definition Membre du groupe ethnique des Tutsis. Deuxième groupe de population au Rwanda et au Burundi.

Same sound, different letters: Tutsi vs Tutsis

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters.

5 ch
Tutsi
6 ch
Tutsis

Ear matches; page differs - Tutsi and Tutsis

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: Tutsi and Tutsis carry the same recorded pronunciation, \tu.tsi\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other aname, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “Tutsi” sits inside “Tutsis”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 78589, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Tutsi is recorded at frequency rank #34,347, classified as anoun, pronounced \tu.tsi\. Tutsis is at rank #44,242, tagged as aname, pronounced \tut.si\.

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 78589, this pair ranks #25,353 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Tutsi vs Tutsis

Shared letters: istu. Private to "Tutsi": -. Private to "Tutsis": -.

"Tutsi" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "Tutsis" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Tutsittusi · ttutsi · tusti · tutis · tutssi · tuttsi · uttsi
  • Tutsisttusis · ttutsis · tustis · tutiss · tutsiss · tutssis · tuttsis · uttsis

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Tutsi" and "Tutsis" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Tutsi" is a noun and "Tutsis" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Tutsi" or "Tutsis"?
"Tutsi" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #34,347 in our French list, against #44,242 for "Tutsis". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Tutsi" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Tutsis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #25,353 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Tutsi" and "Tutsis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tutoie vs Tutsis". 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 #25,353 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