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 eye mixes tosse and tous
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. tosse runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against tous's 4 (CVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: tosse vs tous
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
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "tosse" and "tous" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "tosse" or "tous" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "tosse" 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 #10,074 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tosse" 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 #10,074 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.