tosse vs tous, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“tosse” is a noun and “tous” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#12,572
“tosse” frequency rank: #43,687
“tous” frequency rank: 56259
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	tosse	tous
Definition	expiração brusca, convulsa e ruidosa do ar contido nos pulmões	todos, todo mundo.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set tosse and tous apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch

tosse

4 ch

tous

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: tosse is /ˈtɔ.sɨ/ 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 differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56259, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tosse is recorded at frequency rank #12,572, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈtɔ.sɨ/. 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 56259, this pair ranks #10,074 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of tosse vs tous

Shared letters: ost. Private to "tosse": e. Private to "tous": u.

"tosse" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "tous" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

tosse ← otsse · tose · toses · tsose · ttosse
tous ← otus · tosu · touss · ttous · tuos

Frequency comparison

tosse#12,572

tous#43,687

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "tosse" and "tous" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tosse" is a noun and "tous" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "tosse" or "tous"?

"tosse" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,572 in our Portuguese list, against #43,687 for "tous". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering tosse vs tous

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “tosse”; for a pronoun, it's “tous”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “tosse” entry
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