Which to use
“tous” is a pronoun and “town” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #43,687
- “tous” frequency rank
- #11,172
- “town” frequency rank
- 54859
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tous | town |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | todos, todo mundo. | cidade de pequeno porte |
Where the eye mixes tous and town
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses tous with town
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: tous is /tu/ (diante de consoante), AFI: /tuz/ (diante de vogal e h mudo) while town is /taʊn/])]]. 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 (pronoun vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54859, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
tous is recorded at frequency rank #43,687, classified as apron, pronounced /tu/ (diante de consoante), AFI: /tuz/ (diante de vogal e h mudo). town is at rank #11,172, tagged as anoun, pronounced /taʊn/])]].
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 54859, this pair ranks #10,985 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of tous vs town
Shared letters: ot. Private to "tous": su. Private to "town": nw.
"tous" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "town" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "tous" for "town" ever safe?
Which is more common, "tous" or "town"?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "tous" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "town" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #10,985 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tous" and "town" 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 #10,985 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.