Which to use
“thug” is a noun and “tous” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #32,793
- “thug” frequency rank
- #43,687
- “tous” frequency rank
- 76480
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | thug | tous |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | capanga, bandido, criminoso | todos, todo mundo. |
Where the eye mixes thug and tous
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between thug and tous
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: thug is /θʌɡ/ while tous is /tu/ (diante de consoante), AFI: /tuz/ (diante de vogal e h mudo). Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 76480, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
thug is recorded at frequency rank #32,793, classified as anoun, pronounced /θʌɡ/. tous is at rank #43,687, tagged as apron, pronounced /tu/ (diante de consoante), AFI: /tuz/ (diante de vogal e h mudo).
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 76480, this pair ranks #2,087 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of thug vs tous
Shared letters: tu. Private to "thug": gh. Private to "tous": os.
"thug" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "tous" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "thug" for "tous" ever safe?
Which is more common, "thug" or "tous"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "thug" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tous" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #2,087 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "thug" and "tous" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tosa vs tous". 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 #2,087 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.