parsvspuresWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: pars is a verb, pures is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“pars” is a verb and “pures” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#47,639
“pars” frequency rank
#30,727
“pures” frequency rank
78366
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pars pures
Definition 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs parsen Nominativ Singular Neutrum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs pur

Where the eye mixes pars and pures

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
pars
5 ch
pures

Look-alike desk: pars vs pures

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pars is [paʁs] while pures is [puːʁəs]. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 78366, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pars is recorded at frequency rank #47,639, classified as averb, pronounced [paʁs]. pures is at rank #30,727, tagged as anadj, pronounced [puːʁəs].

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 78366, this pair ranks #239,898 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pars vs pures

Shared letters: prs. Private to "pars": a. Private to "pures": eu.

"pars" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "pures" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • parsaprs · parrs · parss · pasr · ppars · pras
  • puresppures · prues · puers · puress · purres · purse · upres

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pars" and "pures" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pars" is a verb and "pures" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "pars" vs "pures" - which ranks higher?
"pures" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,727 in our German list, against #47,639 for "pars". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "pars" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pures" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #239,898 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pars" and "pures" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pars vs PMS". 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 #239,898 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list